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Geezer installing a darkroom ...
September 1, 2009, from Lloyd Erlick,
Rec.Photo.Darkroom has been pretty slow most of the summer. So I'm going to use it to celebrate my Geezerhood (turned sixty this summer ...) by recounting the thrilling installation of my darkroom in my latest new home. Unlike any darkroom I've ever had in the past, this one has windows. No more basement holes for me, eh? Instead of the seventy-three inch headroom I used to have, now it's almost twelve feet! (The room comes with a ceiling fan - should I use it? Or is it too efficient at dust redistribution?) Yesterday I put the step ladder under the window and climbed up expecting to be able to tape aluminum foil across the panes to achieve the requisite dark for darkroom. I actually spent some time up there earlier in the summer, when I was first experimenting with windows to keep open for ventilation. It wasn't much of a thrill that time, but this time I realized I had to have a lot more stability if I intended to do any actual work, like tearing tape or holding a scissors. Standing on the ladder's top step and all that. So the next step is to empty the stored stuff out of my processing sink and roll it under the window (sink on wheels, every boy's dream). Then the ladder goes in the sink, and I get three feet more reach. Immobilize the wheels, of course. Is this just plain stupid? Anybody who's actually read this far may feel free to advise... Of course, future ventilation is a concern. Just closing and covering the windows would be the easy way, but it will be hot in summer. It's a north facing window, and the air outside tends to be cool most of the time (or at least cooler than the rest of the hellish place when the sun and humidity combine). So I've been thinking of a method of blowing in fresh air through a light-proof vent that cost nothing (unless there is one that would leak cash). An air conditioner would be a possibility, but light could still get in. There are thrilling tales to come - connecting to the drain line and the hot and cold water. (Convenient bathroom adjacent to the darkroom.) Unanswered question: why do I have so many trays? I switched to single-tray processing years ago. So where did all these filthy trays come from? Or did moving just cause them all to band together, perhaps for survival? Well, they do not get to squat on my bed until I'm finished the darkroom. Maybe they can be a temporary filling for the space between a filing cabinet and the ceiling. regards, --le ________________________________ Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto. website: www.heylloyd.com telephone: 416-686-0326 email: ________________________________ -- |
#2
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Geezer installing a darkroom ...
Maciej Zielenkieiwcz wrote:
The (reasonably) simple solution to this is to replace glass in windows with some other material. This goes quite simple if you have modern plastic windows, then you can pull the glass out, measure the dimensions and get a plastic or mdf board of proper size. Then inser it in place of glass. If plastic is too transparent (depends on exact kind of plastic, thickness and colour), paint it with black paint. After that you can drill a hole in it, to which you attach a pipe. Choose a size which will accomodate a standard kithen ventilator. Buy a U-shaped pipe (probably you'd have to assemble it from pieces) and paint inner surfaces black. Also paint fan blades. The fan should be installed to blow air out of the room, Not really. You should blow air into the room through an air filter to remove dust entering the room. If you blow the air out of the room, the room will be at a partial vacuum and dust will get in from every leak. so that it won't pollute air in the house. If you want fresh air from the outside, attach second pipe but without the fan, it should allow for enough cool breeze and there would be less dust. An air conditioner would be a possibility, but light could still get in. Standard air conditioner would not provide you with ventilation, it would be the same air all the time, only cooler. Which means inhalating some toxic fumes from your chemistry, which is not advisable. A standard air conditioner will provide you with ventilation. Most have a lever that controls a small door to the outside. If you need ventilation, though, you may not find this to be enough. |
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Geezer installing a darkroom ...
On 9/1/2009 8:10 AM Jean-David Beyer spake thus:
Maciej Zielenkieiwcz wrote: After that you can drill a hole in it, to which you attach a pipe. Choose a size which will accomodate a standard kithen ventilator. Buy a U-shaped pipe (probably you'd have to assemble it from pieces) and paint inner surfaces black. Also paint fan blades. The fan should be installed to blow air out of the room, Not really. You should blow air into the room through an air filter to remove dust entering the room. If you blow the air out of the room, the room will be at a partial vacuum and dust will get in from every leak. Agreed. Positive ventilation is what a guy would want here. All air that enters the room is filtered. -- Found--the gene that causes belief in genetic determinism |
#4
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Geezer installing a darkroom ...
"Jean-David Beyer" wrote
A standard air conditioner will provide you with ventilation. Most have a lever that controls a small door to the outside. It depends on the air conditioner. I have a GE that will draw all air from the outside, cool it and then blow it into the room if the lever is set to 'fresh air'. I also have a Sharp where I think the lever is just there to amuse you - it seems to do nothing at all. Lightproof these things are not - they use white styrofoam for air passages and separating the inside from the outside. Had an old 1950's Emerson that was light tight. And noisy. And inefficient. And it dripped water. And weighed a ton, it took two people to wrestle it in and out of the window. I have seen 'portable' air conditioners that use a hose that sticks out the window - like a dryer hose - via an adapter panel. I thought one of these with a blacked-out hose would make an ideal darkroom airconditioner but Consumer Reports rated them badly. Anybody have experience with these things. I have converted a 2nd floor bedroom into a darkroom. In order to preserve a normal look to the house I have lowered and closed venetian blinds in the windows - they are white so the reflect some of the sunlight. The inside of the window has a wooden frame pressed around it and a masonite panel - chipboard would work just as well if the frames are going to stay in place. And... Glad to see you back, Lloyd. -- Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio Darkroom Automation: F-Stop Timers, Enlarging Meters http://www.darkroomautomation.com/da-main.htm n o lindan at ix dot netcom dot com |
#5
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Geezer installing a darkroom ...
"Nicholas O. Lindan" wrote in message m... "Jean-David Beyer" wrote A standard air conditioner will provide you with ventilation. Most have a lever that controls a small door to the outside. It depends on the air conditioner. I have a GE that will draw all air from the outside, cool it and then blow it into the room if the lever is set to 'fresh air'. I also have a Sharp where I think the lever is just there to amuse you - it seems to do nothing at all. Lightproof these things are not - they use white styrofoam for air passages and separating the inside from the outside. Had an old 1950's Emerson that was light tight. And noisy. And inefficient. And it dripped water. And weighed a ton, it took two people to wrestle it in and out of the window. I have seen 'portable' air conditioners that use a hose that sticks out the window - like a dryer hose - via an adapter panel. I thought one of these with a blacked-out hose would make an ideal darkroom airconditioner but Consumer Reports rated them badly. Anybody have experience with these things. I have converted a 2nd floor bedroom into a darkroom. In order to preserve a normal look to the house I have lowered and closed venetian blinds in the windows - they are white so the reflect some of the sunlight. The inside of the window has a wooden frame pressed around it and a masonite panel - chipboard would work just as well if the frames are going to stay in place. And... Glad to see you back, Lloyd. -- Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio Darkroom Automation: F-Stop Timers, Enlarging Meters http://www.darkroomautomation.com/da-main.htm n o lindan at ix dot netcom dot com Straying away from darkrooms into air conditioners, Mitsubishi makes a two part system: the air handler mounts inside the room, usually near the ceiling and the compressor goes outside, like a normal whole house air conditioner system. The systems are available in different sizes and the compressors can handle one, two, or three air handlers. Of course with such a unit, there is no option for outside air. |
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Geezer installing a darkroom ...
"K W Hart" wrote
Straying away from darkrooms into air conditioners, Mitsubishi makes a two part system: the air handler mounts inside the room, usually near the ceiling and the compressor goes outside, like a normal whole house air conditioner system. The systems are available in different sizes and the compressors can handle one, two, or three air handlers. Of course with such a unit, there is no option for outside air. In case anyone's interested, the Mitsubishi units are called "Mr. Slim." |
#7
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Geezer installing a darkroom ...
On Wed, 2 Sep 2009 17:49:21 -0400, "Nicholas
O. Lindan" wrote: I have seen 'portable' air conditioners that use a hose that sticks out the window - like a dryer hose - via an adapter panel. I thought one of these with a blacked-out hose would make an ideal darkroom airconditioner but Consumer Reports rated them badly. Anybody have experience with these things. September 4, 2009, from Lloyd Erlick, Those things are on sale around here. It's been an unususally cool summer, and I suppose a lot of stock did not find buyers. They're still overpriced. They occupy floor real estate, too, but sometimes that's what the window demands, I guess. regards, --le ________________________________ Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto. website: www.heylloyd.com telephone: 416-686-0326 email: ________________________________ -- |
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Geezer installing a darkroom ...
On Wed, 2 Sep 2009 17:49:21 -0400, "Nicholas
O. Lindan" wrote: Glad to see you back, Lloyd. -- Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio September 4, 2009, from Lloyd Erlick, Thank you very much. It's been a hell of a ride. We've had lots of ups and downs - and tonight is Natalie's eightieth birthday. The Good News for Geezers is that post-open-heart-surgery sex is possible .... regards, --le ________________________________ Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto. website: www.heylloyd.com telephone: 416-686-0326 email: ________________________________ -- |
#9
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Geezer installing a darkroom ...
In article ,
Lloyd at @the-wire. dot com wrote: On Wed, 2 Sep 2009 17:49:21 -0400, "Nicholas O. Lindan" wrote: I have seen 'portable' air conditioners that use a hose that sticks out the window - like a dryer hose - via an adapter panel. I thought one of these with a blacked-out hose would make an ideal darkroom airconditioner but Consumer Reports rated them badly. Anybody have experience with these things. September 4, 2009, from Lloyd Erlick, Those things are on sale around here. It's been an unususally cool summer, and I suppose a lot of stock did not find buyers. There is a problem with the single-hose models, which should be pretty obvious if you think about how they work: they have an air _exhaust__ but no intake, right? So where does the air they use to cool the hot side of the freon coil come from? The answer is, "inside your room". So they cause continual negative air pressure in your room, and without it, they don't work. And what _this_ means is that if your structure is really well sealed, they cannot work at all, while if it's not, they pull in at least as much hot air as they produce cold air! It is a terrible loophole in the efficiency rating system for air conditioners which permits these to exist at all. If they were rated fairly, they would all fail the minimum-efficiency test and be banned from the market. The dual-hose models, on the other hand, work fine, if you can find one that's not cheap junk from the lowest-bidding Chinese factory. The dual-hose type, of course, uses _outside_ air which it pulls in using one of the hoses to cool the hot side of the coil, just like a normal window unit would. You can replace the hoses with aluminum dryer hose, which is light tight, and the unit should then work well in a darkroom. It can be hard to find a small dual-hose unit. Frigidaire makes a 9,000BTU model which A.J. Madison and some of the other national appliance delivery chains carry. I have one and it's worked well so far. But it does have some bright green lights on the control panel which you will have to tape over, and also keep in mind the inside of that aluminum hose is reflective and could give you a light leak if the other end is in direct sunlight -- you might well want to paint as much of the interior of the hose black at each end as you can reach. Like most units the Frigidaire has some vent slots to let the unit pull exhaust air from the inside of the room like a single-hose unit if the intake hose is blocked. I have taped these over on other units without any trouble (they always pull some air from the interior of the room if you don't but in a darkroom this might actually give you some desirable exhaust air to carry airborne contaminants out of the room). I would not try to run a darkroom with positive-pressure ventilation. It sounds good in theory, but a wet darkroom makes a lot of dirty air which you really want out before it can irritate your mucus membranes and your lungs. If anything, balanced airflow, with fans for both intake and exhaust air, blowing across the sink, would be the best way to go. -- Thor Lancelot Simon "Even experienced UNIX users occasionally enter rm *.* at the UNIX prompt only to realize too late that they have removed the wrong segment of the directory structure." - Microsoft WSS whitepaper |
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Geezer installing a darkroom ...
September 4, 2009, from Lloyd Erlick,
My landlord would love me if he only knew what I've done for him. He rented me a kitchen sink drain that contained two plastic straws, a plastic chopstick, and two stainless steel dinner forks. Quite a feat to get them all down there. So, while warming up for the main act of putting in the darkroom, I made the kitchen work. Next was the toilet, which had some broken pieces of plastic obstructing the drain. Then came the bathtub which must have had lots of hair and soapy gunk down there, because a sodium hydroxide type drain clearer worked in a couple of minutes. Whatever was in there got eaten up and suddenly the drain drained. So all that remained was the bathroom sink drain. This was the one I planned for a connection that would drain my darkroom, which is just on the other side of the wall. It was made of that overpriced chrome plated brass pipe that is supposed to look good under a sink. Unfortunately it had been sitting there since 1977. By the time I pried the screw connections loose I could see the edges inside the pipe were bent and frayed. Anyway, no cheapskate move like finding a matching Tee fitting and getting it in there like it matched. Nice new ABS pipe all the way from the sink drain to the pipe disappearing down the wall. Holes cut through the wall and nice fresh ABS DWV pipe down along the wall to my sinks. Hooray. Flexible bilge hose from the sinks to the drain pipe so the sinks can be moved if necessary. I haven't done any plumbing in twenty five years. I had almost forgotten the fragrance of ABS plastic cement. And the thrill of getting it off skin! Once upon a time I could cut up the requisite hunks of pipe, open the glue can, smear it all over in just the right places, and carefully assemble the plastic trombone without getting a spot on my hands. But no more. My father always used to complain that his hands became more and more "un-nimble" as he got older. Damned if my hands aren't un-nimble compared to days gone by! I also haven't soldered any copper pipe in many years. Two short pieces of garden variety half inch copper pipe with little fittings on the ends. They didn't even come up to being called a trombone. All morning poking over them. I'm just glad I'm not going to be getting enough practice to become speedy. I just love those nice stainless steel braid covered flexible hoses made for connecting the hot and cold lines. They go through a hole in the wall so effortlessly. Pretty soon I'll have the pleasure of lifting my enlarger up off the floor onto a nice dry side I have yet to create. But I have the right stuff for it - a stainless steel table top forty one inches by nine feet. The most ridiculous things come for free. I had to scrub bakery evidence off it, but that was a small price to pay. So, lifting heavy objects in my near future. And a trapeze act to darken the windows. Meanwhile there is exposed film waiting and waiting. (I could have teenager assistance lifting the enlarger - but would that be wise? Or should I get help from my overweight geezer buddy that I at least trust??) regards, --le ________________________________ Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto. website: www.heylloyd.com telephone: 416-686-0326 email: ________________________________ -- |
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