I've been spending about an hour each night in my bathroom tray developing glass plates. My method has been to set up the HC-110 with lights on, then turn them off and immediately slide the plate into it. Water stop bath, and while that's going on I then pour my Photographer's Formulary 4 fixer into the tray and move the plate from the stop into the fixer. Fix for ~4 minutes, then into a rinse. While I have rinse water running I pour the fixer back into the bottle. The tray remains wet from the fixer, of course. I do have my bathroom fan on, and I'm wearing a glove on my right hand which I only dip into the HC-110 to retrieve the plate. Have not been wearing a glove on my left hand, which I use to pull the plate from the fixer. I wash my hands first chance I get.

All of this has been working sort of OK, but tonight I went for a double batch. That meant leaving the fixer in the tray while I started my second batch. Fan on but bathroom door closed, with towel blocking the crack at the bottom. I did get a slight headache afterwards--rarely get headaches. My sinuses and eyes also feel a bit irritated. Don't have this problem using the Stearman 445 tank, of course.

So, any suggestions? I'm positive it's the PF4 that is bothering me. I could try turning on the central air fan to pump more fresh air into the bathroom, but I'm not sure that would be enough. I have two other thoughts. After I do the stop bath, can't I then open the door to the subdued light while doing the fixing? I think that would solve my problem. I surely should be able to open the door during the final rinse I would think. I could then put the fixer back into the bottle and rinse out the tray. Or, should I change fixers? Eventually I plan on building a real dark room in my basement and would have better air circulation in that. Likely won't do that for at least a year or two though. What do you guys do? I feel like the headache and slightly burning eyes/nose is a warning to heed.


Kent in SD