What really happens in a darkroom? Used equipment

[jeroldharter]

I am not naturally neat, but my gear is always in impeccable condition. From the darkroom photos that people post here and on APUG, it looks like most people are pretty conscientious as well. So what happens to some of the used gear that I pick up at auction sites?

Some gear looks like it was stored in a WWII bunker before a smoker breathed a 1000 packs of Camels onto it and turned the knobs yellow. Do people really smoke in their darkrooms? I am just griping of course but how do easels rust or get gunked up with crud in the corners (maybe that's corned beef)? How do developing trays become indelibly stained? How do... Have others had this experience or am I the only one?

[jp]

Most of my darkroom stuff is nice and clean, even the used stuff. It's all considered used at some point.

I do have a rusty easel. My previous darkroom was in a basement. And basements sometimes have humidity problems you don't get elsewhere in the house. The paint on the easels isn't super great (The speed-easels). It's a much lower quality paint than an enlarger or car.

Lots of people don't have a permanent darkroom as well, or they have lost their darkroom, thus they are selling stuff. It might have been stored in their garage, basement, shed, etc...

Lots of gear I think comes from people who have died or are close to it. That's where I got my first darkroom gear. It might sit around a long time before folks are able to get rid of the darkroom gear. I distinctly remember showing up to meet the widow and the owner's photographer friend to go over what was available. I got my leitz tripod in the same sort of arrangement; visiting the widow, as she knew I was into photography and might be interested.

The developing tray is stained with lots of use. My stop bath tray has a slight stain to it as well from the indicator stop bath. I suspect I've used my trays 20x more than the average darkroom equipment you're apt to buy used. I suppose they could be stained from lack of cleaning as well. Trays are cheap enough that you can buy them new if you want. I've got some 5x7 trays that were used. I kept one for photoflow use, and let my 4yo daughter play with the others. Makes a cool swimming pool for lego people for her to play in the darkroom when I work there.

[Brook Martin]

It use to be a common practice in newspaper darkrooms for film to go straight from the fix to the enlarger dripping wet to crank out a print to meet a deadline. Not pretty.

[bob carnie]

Stained trays//

How would I ever know which ones are Dev, Stop and fixes .
I know a few pro printers who smoke while printing , I think its soothing for them.

[John Kasaian]

Who knows what adventures lurk in dark rooms? I keep my stuff clean---I had that drilled in me back in my chemistry lab assistant days, but if used equiptment could talk, I wonder what stories they could tell?

I do have a set of used, gloriously Kodak yellow Duraflex trays (which I always wanted but they were too expensive for me back when Kodak was selling them)---and wonderful trays they are/were---by the time they came to roost with me via ebay, they were badly stained so I cleaned them the best I could with toilet bowl cleaner and keep them in reserve.

What I don't understand is how the platens of old dry mount presses can get in so scorched and pitted. Like, what on earth did they use these things for?

[numnutz]

I know a few pro printers who smoke while printing

Gives a nice softening effect to the prints...

nn

[Neal Wydra]

I participate in a community darkroom in Chicago (http://chicagodarkroom.com/) where a good deal of the equipment was donated by professional labs and schools. Some of the equipment looks pretty worn but it all works very well. The equipment in my home darkroom looks much nicer, but the prints don't come out any better (and it's not heated during the winter!<g>).

Neal Wydra

[Nathan Potter]

Who knows what adventures lurk in dark rooms? I keep my stuff clean---I had that drilled in me back in my chemistry lab assistant days, but if used equiptment could talk, I wonder what stories they could tell?

What I don't understand is how the platens of old dry mount presses can get in so scorched and pitted. Like, what on earth did they use these things for?

My extra one is used for grilled cheese sandwich reheat.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[ic-racer]

With respect to commercial equipment I think it is an issue that the people using the equipment don't own it and don't care.

Here is a picture of what my enlarger looked like when I went to pick it up and then after I cleaned it up.

[ic-racer]

I had to buy a second enlarger just to get the CLS head. That first enlarger was actually mechanically perfect under the dirt. However, this one was not only dirty, it was mechanically beat up. You can see the locking knobs are busted and what you can't see is that the enlarger ran over the ribbon cord and took the whole system down, turning it into a junk enlarger (good for me, though, because I repaired the ribbon cord and got it running again).

This second enlarger was in a lab that rented it by the hour. It really got trashed. The CLS head was spared though. Some of the mixing boxes looked like they had either vomit or milk shake poured on them. Whatever it was it left some permanent marks in the paint.