Darkroom Building 101

[Tin]

Stephanie,

Kin Lau's suggestion is the best one for you at this time.

Although I haven't printed for a few years, this was my set-up:

I set up my darkroom in my basement laundry/furnace room. It has a small basement window. Since I only print after dark, I 've never covered that window, and it has never given me any problems. If you are still concerned about light leak, you might be able to cover it without a lot of fuss. Although I have not tried this, but I think a hard foam board cut to the size of your window opening will do. If your window has an insect screen, the board can be cut to size and take the place of the insect screen. You might wish to tape a couple of tabs on the board with duck tape to help you retrieve the board if it ever got stuck.

When I lived an apartment, I had a system that was even simpler than Bob's. I just set a piece of plywood across 1/3 of the bath tub, and placed my enlarger on top. If you are cocenred that the plywood might slip, you can add a couple of wood strips underneath to serve as stoppers. I then placed all my trays on the bottom of the bath tub. That was the wet side of my darkroom. Thst way, all the essential facilities of the bathroom (toilet, sink, counter top) were not occupied by any of my stuff.

 

[jlw]

If only this were 1856, you could buy exactly what you need:

Portable dark tent (click)

Actually, I seem to recall that dark-tents were used by the armed forces well past the Korean War era... wonder if you could scare one up on the surplus market? (I did google for 'dark tent' but to no avail.)

Even more recently, I have this vague memory of reading ads for a device that was basically a huge changing bag with an air blower piped into it. You'd just sit it out in the middle of the floor, turn on the blower (filtered) and in a few moments it would inflate into a big enough enclosure for a person and a small table for enlarger etc. The blower took care of heat and ventilation issues, too.

But none of that helps you, because a lot of this stuff seems to be no longer available. Even the 'darkroom cloth' you used to be able to buy by the yard from Porter's Camera is no more, or so it seems from their online catalog. I got a hit on a 'portable darkroom' made by F.J. Westcott, but couldn't find it on their website (which has a lot of broken links); still, they might be a place to contact for possible leads.

If you absolutely insist on erecting something outdoors, I'd think one of those garden storage sheds sold at Menard's and such places might be a starting point. These are made of plastic, so you'd have to paint it with something totally opaque to make it dark. And ventilation would be an absolute must!

 

[Tin]

jlw,

Although this will not help Stephanie because of large size and high cost, dark tents are still available, but not as darkroom tents. These gadgets have re-invent themselves as "Portable Planetarium" (use this term in your search). The following is only one of the makes:

http://www.cubex.com.ar/english/english.htm

If these are dark enough to be used as a planetarium, these should be good enough to be used as portable darkrooms.

 

[childers-jk]

I know I'm a little late in responding, but Steph, I would think about what jlw said about a portable building. You should be able to find a small plastic shed for a resonable price, then if you move out, you can take it with you. Water could come from a hose run from inside the house, or hooked to the hot water heater. I have come very close to building another shed (I have one for gardening stuff) just for a darkroom, but I haven't gotten up the courage yet. I also want to start using a spare bathroom, and I would like to see any pictures you all have of those temporary setups in bathrooms.

Thanks,

Jeff C.

 

[ray_g]

Stephanie, in their webpage, under the "darkroom" section, Roger and Frances describe their experience with the Nova Darkroom Tent. You may want to check that out if that option interests you.

 

[Fred]

Hi Steph,

You can get away without plumbing water and drainage. A freind of mine used to use her spare bed room blacked out for the enlarging, dev, stop, fix parts. The fixed prints rested in a bucket of water until she'd finished. Then the lights went on and to the bathroom for a final wash.

Just a thought if your stuck for space. Give it a try altough it's not ideal. Having been spoilt by a darkroom (err... kitchen) I'm not sure if I'd be happy for long doing this.