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Thread: Shooing dust- compressor for the new darkroom?

  1. #11

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    Re: Shooing dust- compressor for the new darkroom?

    I am also a believer in positive ventilation. I reversed a "darkroom ventilation" fan and it has simplified my life immensely. All incoming air is filtered through a 5 micron filter.

  2. #12
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Shooing dust- compressor for the new darkroom?

    You can either waste hundreds of dollars on canned air over the years, potentially with nasty propellants in them too, or buy a good compressor. I have not only sold thousands of compressors prior to retirement, but designed them. Today you can get some very quiet ones that run cool (the opposite - running hot, leads to condensation in the tank, and then water in the air line), that are fairly affordable, are compact, and use relatively little electricity. But don't be fooled by all the too good to be true false labeling, ridiculously low prices, and toy construction of typical home center compressors. I recommend LOW RPM units which produce volume not by revving up some tiny piston to the noise level of a chainsaw, but that potentially use two small tandem pistons at lower RPM. Really good US made small portable compressors are now out of production. But some relatively decent imports like the Rol Air JC10 are readily available and almost as quiet as a refrigerator. Then you want to add a micro-filtration system to your air lines, which should be of a hose material that doesn't break down and shed grease or particulates itself. If you pay ten bucks for a hose, you are a fool. Degrease all fittings and airguns with alcohol or similar solvent before darkroom use. You don't need high pressure in a darkroom; set the regulator around 30 to 40 PSI. And never ever ever believe the horsepower and CFM ratings on consumer grade compressors; it's all BS. The compressor should be in an adjacent room, with the air line going through the wall. It's not the air coming out of the hose you need to worry about
    stirring up dust, but the rotating fan cooling the compressor motor itself. But if your darkroom is just too damn dusty to begin with, don't ask for my sympathy. I've spoken previously about the correct kinds of vacuums for darkrooms, which you're not going to find at Cheapo Depot either.

  3. #13
    Steven Ruttenberg's Avatar
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    Re: Shooing dust- compressor for the new darkroom?

    attach an ionization nozzle to hose outlet and ionization device to the compressor side to keep static electricity to a minimum. Water trap and water filter as well.

  4. #14
    Jac@stafford.net's Avatar
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    Re: Shooing dust- compressor for the new darkroom?

    You can also use a HEPA filtered room-sized machine running full time in the darkroom.
    I do. It works and is economical. Just leave it running and be happy.

  5. #15
    Steven Ruttenberg's Avatar
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    Re: Shooing dust- compressor for the new darkroom?

    My office, is 1/4 of the upstairs and is open to the whole house. It would look awkward if I closed it off.

    I am thinking of something like this

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dust-Free-R...53.m1438.l2649

  6. #16
    Jac@stafford.net's Avatar
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    Re: Shooing dust- compressor for the new darkroom?

    Quote Originally Posted by Steven Ruttenberg View Post
    My office, is 1/4 of the upstairs and is open to the whole house. It would look awkward if I closed it off.

    I am thinking of something like this

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dust-Free-R...53.m1438.l2649
    Not good unless you are soldering under it.

  7. #17

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    Re: Shooing dust- compressor for the new darkroom?

    Have and use a Paasche Air Compressor which is a rather small unit made for artists doing air brushing. Very small and compact and quiet. The Paasche has been running strong since the 1980s. Not all that powerful a machine which what I wanted. Replaced a small commercial air compressor that took up too much space, was down right loud, and way too powerful. Also have 2 small HEPA filtered machines pretty much running all the time in the darkroom. One at floor level and the other one on a shelf pulling air (and dust) from above my film loading counter. Since running them rarely have to vacuum up dust and dirt off the floor.

  8. #18
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Shooing dust- compressor for the new darkroom?

    Any serious cleanroom operation needs it all : micro-filtered, water and oil free compressed air, true HEPA vac ports (quite different from an ordinary vac with a swapped-out filter), ambient antistatic air collection (those ordinary circulating air cleaners can help, but they aren't anstistatic), therefore perhaps a supplementary ionized air gun too, antistatic enamel walls as well as other surfaces, lint-free clothing, filtered room input air. You can take this list as far as you wish. Semi-fussy is OK for me when doing black and white printing, because the paper itself generates link. Color printing requires a different level of control, at least in advanced methods which might involve multiple film masks, each capable of cumulative dust. If any of you needs a super-duper soft film wiping cloth, I have a few spare cats laying around. Fortunately, my darkrooms are in a completely different building.

  9. #19
    Steven Ruttenberg's Avatar
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    Re: Shooing dust- compressor for the new darkroom?

    Quote Originally Posted by Jac@stafford.net View Post
    Not good unless you are soldering under it.
    It worked for us at NASA. As long as the filter was clean and all work was done under the hood. You of course had to turn it on well before hand to be sure to filter out any dust and we used it for assembly things that needed to be dust free. There are also other versions, laminar flow, horizontal flow, depends on what level you need. This is a positive air pressure so it is not sucking things up, but rather blowing in filtered air and maintaining an air curtain with positive pressure to keep particles out.

  10. #20
    Steven Ruttenberg's Avatar
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    Re: Shooing dust- compressor for the new darkroom?

    Quote Originally Posted by Drew Wiley View Post
    Any serious cleanroom operation needs it all : micro-filtered, water and oil free compressed air, true HEPA vac ports (quite different from an ordinary vac with a swapped-out filter), ambient antistatic air collection (those ordinary circulating air cleaners can help, but they aren't anstistatic), therefore perhaps a supplementary ionized air gun too, antistatic enamel walls as well as other surfaces, lint-free clothing, filtered room input air. You can take this list as far as you wish. Semi-fussy is OK for me when doing black and white printing, because the paper itself generates link. Color printing requires a different level of control, at least in advanced methods which might involve multiple film masks, each capable of cumulative dust. If any of you needs a super-duper soft film wiping cloth, I have a few spare cats laying around. Fortunately, my darkrooms are in a completely different building.
    At NASA, we had a clean room from hell. Anti-static everything, large ionizers, humidity controlled, tons of filtered air, special smocks we had to wear, alarmed wrist straps, etc. Everything was grounded, filtered, ionized air, etc. You couldn't find a turd from a dust particle if you tried, nor generate a static charge big enough for zapping the heart of a lizard. If I had that for my work area, I would be in heaven.

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