New darkroom

[Bill Kumpf]

I would be afraid to use a darkroom that nice.......

[willwilson]

I am very jealous. Nice work! Hope it lets you make some nice work as well.

[Ron McElroy]

Great looking sink! Did you use many coats of polyurethane?

[k_redder]

Great looking sink! Did you use many coats of polyurethane?

Thanks. It's actually West System epoxy, 3 coats. Since it's used mostly on boats it seemed like the right thing for the job, plus after searching around it seems a lot of other people have used it for their darkroom sinks and there were few if any complaints, so I went with it. I had never used it before and wasn't exactly sure what to expect, but it isn't too hard to work with. The only thing that surprised me was that it flows for a lot longer than I thought it would.
The bottom of the sink looks like a sheet of glass, but the vertical sides wanted to keep dripping and I had to babysit with a brush in hand waiting for it to set, so the sides are not quite as smooth. West System makes several thickening agents that can be mixed in, which might have helped, but it came out fine. It'll certainly do the job it needs to do.

[macandal]

Hi. This was a great thread. Is there a list of what to get when putting together a darkroom? Thanks.

[Greg Gibbons]

I find that the computer monitor looks really really bright when you're in a darkroom, and it blinds you for looking at what the inkjet is doing.

Kidding. Looks like a really fun room. Enjoy!

[Kirsten Flo]

I never did color printing, but I know Color analyzers are supposed to determine what color filtration and presumeably the exposure to use for a particular print.Lets start with b&w...when you print b&w, you're supposed to make teststrips, exposing your paper by 2 to 5 second intervals, and then developing that strip, trying again until you find just the right time to expose your paper so that you get a "good" print - a nice range from black to white. You also play with contrast filter, that adjust what how much the range is from the blackest to the whitest part of the image.

[d.s.]

RE: West System...I used to work in a custom boat shop building Carolina sport fishing boats, wood epoxy. At that time we were told by a WEST rep. that microscopically the resin looks kinda like swiss cheese. Therefor 4 to 5 coats are needed to insure that the holes don't line up allowing water to find it's way through. This is regardless of the thickness of each coat.
I use a squeegee to apply the resin with the first coat thinned with acetone. That helps it penetrate deeper into the wood fibers. It also raises the grain of the wood. After it kicks, wipe it down with paper towels soaked with water and dry with another paper towel. This removes the amine blush that comes to the surface then sand it lightly to knock the points off.
Afterwords re coat with neat resin, (un thinned), using a squeegee. When this coat is just getting green, (not kicked but not gooey, but you can leave a fingerprint in it). Re coat again and continue this process until the total number of coats you want to apply has been completed.
After the last coat has cured, the amine blush will come to the surface. Repeat the washing with water changing the paper towels often and dry with fresh paper towels. The amine blush will feel oily and the towels will have an orange color on them. The blush seems to be more prominent during high humidity. The blush cannot be removed with anything but water soaked rags and wiped with fresh rag or towel.
The squeegee application uses very little resin, A little goes a long way. Thin is flexible. Thick, as applied with a brush or roller can crack or shatter if something is dropped on it like a nikkor tank.
Use west silica thickener for fillets after the first 3 coat of resin has been applied. I use a brush to smooth out the fillets in this type of application if necessary. Wash and lightly sand the sink before using.
The outside of the sink should be sealed with resin or paint to prevent the wood from taking in moisture from the air which over time could rot the wood from the inside out.

WEST System means Wood Epoxy Saturation Technique.
It's a great system. I've used it for 25 years.

d.s.