I had a cheap (Harbor Freight) compressor at my old darkroom. It was on another floor and piped in by a 50 ft. hose. Had the necessary filters and nozzle, and I had it set to 40 lbs. Worked great. In my new darkroom, there was no
"other floor", so my wife gifted me with a relatively more expensive, but very quiet compressor from Rockler Woodworking. Same filter, nozzle and pressure regulator. I do have it on the other side of the room from the enlargers!
Drew what vacuum cleaner do you recommend? I will be using it throughout house as well as my office. Hopefully it will last longer than the Walmart special.
What about this vacuum? https://www.unoclean.com/Mastercraft...2-Gallons.aspx
Also check out Fein and Festool.
“You often feel tired, not because you've done too much, but because you've done too little of what sparks a light in you.”
― Alexander Den Heijer, Nothing You Don't Already Know
All the brands of HEPA vacs out there nearly all come from only two plants, though the details of different brands vary somewhat relative to patents and specific features. The main plant is in Alto, Italy, which makes Festool, Fein, Eurovac, and numerous others.
But because it is owned by Tooltechnik/Festo, they reserve the latest features and the best price advantage for their own Festool models. What you need to keep in mind in this subject is also the price and consistency of availability of replacement filters, which in a two-stage vac design are supplementary to the bag itself. And the best bags are basically a triple-layer polyester rather than paper. In a darkroom it's also important to have a variable-power feature to lower the suction, as well as anti-static hoses and accessories made from either special plastic or stainless steel. I therefore think that the best bang for the buck is the Festool Midi-Vac. It has quite a small footprint, but still enough capacity for remodeling projects, shop & home use et - quite versatile. Somewhat pricey up front, but a bargain in the long run if you factor in the sheer quality, the best REAL warranty policy of any tool brand (read the fine print in all the others), the huge selection of available accessories, compatibility with their wonderful tool other tools, and significant worldwide inventory of parts and accessories. The fittings will interchange with Fein, but not necessarily the hoses. Fein does offer a couple of soft true horsehair counter brushes, though you'd no doubt have to special order them, because they only imported them for me. But they're in the US catalog. Both Fein and Festool have remarkably advanced engineering divisions, and they share certain projects. Festo (the parent company of Festool) is designing the most advanced commercial drones in the world as well as the most advanced manufacturing robots, both based on study of live animals. They have an actual zoo at the main plant in Germany. They have three live elephants being studied by physiologists, and have created an artificial elephant trunk robotic arm that operates safely in direct proximity to human technicians. As a marketing stunt, it sorts and packs eggs without breaking them. Then they're at the front of designing "ornithopters" - basically big artificial seagulls that fly by wing flapping instead of rotors, and get eight times the distance on the same battery charge. There's a picture of one of those is an issue of lasts year's Natl Geo magazine. Artificial feathers are coming next.
That Unoclean vac is also utilizes the previous generation of Fein filter options, not their current ones. So if you go that route, you'd want to be certain there's a sufficient backup supply of those older-style filters. That particular plant allegedly closed; and that's why Fein decided to update everything and have the Festo plant in Italy make their new models (at an updated price structure too!). No one else in the country stocked or sold as many Fein filters as I did; but I retired two years ago, and haven't kept up with details. Most of the action had already transferred over to Festool well before I left. Three truck shipments a week.
Cool. Thanks for the reply. I will check out the vac you recommend. It will be as much for photography as for helping with allergies.
I have a bigger version for the shop. But we have pets and my wife has allergies, so she likes to use my Midi Vac in the house because it picks up everything left behind by the regular vacs. These Festool vacs are also EPA certified for lead paint sanding and extraction, so suitable outside the house too, if you have to deal with old paint or other nasties.
Like Eric mentioned he uses a scuba tank. I also use a scuba tank (clean dry air) and use the low-pressure outlet on the first stage. I then move it to anywhere I want to use it, it works really well. You do have to use the low-pressure outlet, the high-pressure outlets are far too strong. This may not be a cheap option though given the legal requirements for testing. In Australia the tank needs to be visually inspected, pressure tested and punch stamped each year or you can't get it filled (every 5 years in the US). The regulator should also be serviced annually. Not an issue if you dive as you would be doing this anyway.
I have a compressor, but will be replacing it with a larger standup one that will be plumbed into my eventual darkroom. I am getting another to go in the house for my digital work, the JC0PLUS 1 HP that Drew mentioned. The price is right and it looks to be quiet.
Looking at the Midi Vac, but they don't seem to make it easy to get the accessories or the Hepa filters. I must be looking at wrong place on their website.
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