Darkroom Renovation Phase 1

Relocated Safelites, Air Evac System roughed in by Nokton48, on Flickr

I now view a ventilation system important for the long term, so now it is really roughed in. The Harbor Freight Dust Collection Fan is like a rocket engine. Maybe too powerful and loud, even in the other room? We will see

Also rerouted a couple of safe lights, and screwed down the power strip up high left.

This will work until I get plumbing and new electrical added. The sink is simply to contain the mess at this point. Prints get washed in the adjoining laundry room.

I have a LOT of negs I haven't seen in 25 years to print.

Also you can see the neg 10 minute film dryer, located behind the door. I can dry eighteen rolls of 35mm XX in that with no prob.
 
MrFujicaman said:
I want to see the matt print dryer!
Click to expand...

I can use it right now for air drying prints, although I'm still looking for the right place for it, it's really big and heavy. Need to build a table that fits it, with storage underneath. The lid and everything about this thing is heavy duty. I'm also glad I selected marine plywood but wow was it expensive $168 for a 4x8 sheet but it's beautiful. I have plenty of corrogated cardboard sheets (from the internet) but I will prolly buy more blotters, they are cheap at Freestyle.

No heaters in it yet, I'm debating about that. I did buy a 650w cone heater and they aren't $6 anymore. They are $39 and they make them in whatever wattage you desire. I also need to install those muffin fans you sent me and wire them in. I also bought a "Carbide tip Adjustable Circle Cutter" as well as an 18" metal platform Step Stool while at Harbor Freight.

Planning on a printing session this afternoon. I have some Arista EDU graded #2 and #3 Matte RC paper I want to try.
I also found some outdated sealed 5x7 and 8x10 Agfa Brovira fibre DW various grades that might still be usuable. We will see........... I do like the Ilford Multigrade Developer, although I also have Dektol and I used to mix GAF130 and my own Amidol I'll have to find the receipe.

I also have fifty sheets of 8x10 fibre Ektalure salon R paper, as well as some 11x14 and 16x20 frozen new from when Kodak was dumping it. My favorite fiber paper.

Right now it's all matte RC, which is easy to deal with and scans great

Petersons Photographic Matte Print Dryer by Nokton48, on Flickr
 
Dan, if I'd known you were going to make such a beautiful print dryer, I'd have sent you some stainless steel deck screws to make it even prettier !

What kind of wire did you hang the intake for the venting system with ? I'm cleaning out my workshop and I have a coil of stainless steel "safety wire" I'll never use-must be 20-30 feet of it left. Yours if you want it.

You might think about putting some small muffin fans in the door vent.
 
Many THANKS to all contributors in this thread and others.

As to what is ahead, stay tuned. I like the Arista EDU matte #2 RC paper, it's high quality and relatively cheap, so I'm ordering an 8x10 250 sheet box from Freestyle on Tuesday. After printing on RC I will live with these "work prints" for a while, then decide how to best fibre print them. Taking notes is important but I am starting to get a "feel" for these materials respond to my equipment. It will take a -while- to go through the images I have on file. Printing five or six 8x10s in a stretch seems to be about right for me at this point.

Should be getting another DII chassis and base (hopefully next week), I will mount that on drop table #2, and attach the uber cool "Modern Enlarging Systems" LED light source on that one. Wonderful to have identical side by side enlarging machines. What I have is the "Model 2" which only works with graded paper.

I'm stoked to be printing again. 🙂
 
Omega DII Lensboard Adaptions by Nokton48, on Flickr

Here I am adding three way adjustment of lens plane, to omega DII lensboards. With the alignment laser I can nail the parallels on the carrier stage, and the lens board stage (with this adaption). Grain wide open sharp all the way across the field. One thing I did was jettison the silly glass plate/rubber bands contraption thing, and put a UV filter on each enlarging lens. Then the calibration with laser is easy.

250 more sheets of 8x10 matte Arista EDU #2 RC ordered, for large format and 120 work prints. Also 100 sheets of 5x7 matte Arista EDU #2 RC (for 35mm and 6.5x9cm work prints). I like this paper, it comes in #2 and #3. Both papers same exposure so it makes it quick and easy.
 
Printing again this morning. Will post when it all dries.

Omega DII Column Replacement Bushings by Nokton48, on Flickr

Above are two complete sets of replacement bushings for the center column of an Omega DII. I should be getting my second enlarger this Saturday, so this seem like the best time to completely rebuild and adjust everything.

Everything came from www.McMaster.com

The original article regarding modifying the DII column is here:

http://www.afterness.com/vico222/omega_enlarger_bearings.html
 
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