It is all in the Mail

[rover]

I have been piecing together a darkroom via ebay over the past couple weeks, saved a lot of money, but this morning I broke down and just ordered the rest of my needs from B&H and Freestyle. Next weekend I will be printing. 😎

Trays and dodads from B&H, overall the prices on these were a little less, paper and chemistry from Freestyle. I went to what I think is the best local pro shop yesterday, and wow, darkroom stuff is in a corner, dusty, really being closed out. I was happy to find a negative carrier at a good price, so I bought that and some storage bottles. I would have liked to give them more business, but they didn't really have anything in stock.

I went with the Paterson Rapid wash tray for print washing. Does anyone else use that? Is it effective, not going to fill my bathroom up with water is it?

Arista chemicals, 250 sheets of 5x7 Edu Ultra paper to play with and 100 sheets of Ilford Multigrade for the stuff I want to try to make good prints of.

Now, print drying, here is my thought.

I go to Bed, Bath & Beyond, or another cute chick shop and get a cloths drying rack, one of those folding ones, and some of that rubber mesh cabinet liner stuff that keeps things from slipping around. Drape the mesh over the rack, instant vented print dryer. Pretty good?

Ok, that is it for this update of my latest adventure.

 

[markinlondon]

Ah! Now the real fun begins.
I've got a Paterson rapid washer, it works fine, just watch the flow rate and make sure you plug the input hose in securely. I've had mine pop out a couple of times and it is a bit messy.
For drying RC paper I use a Paterson drying rack, an extortionately priced plate rack really. A plastic plate drying rack from a houeware store would work nicely. Alternatively just string up a line and hang your prints by the corner from paper clips or something. RC prints dry very quickly vertically. Drying screens are more suitable for fibre. I also have a small hot air dryer that cost me about £40, these speed thing up nicely.
The Arista Edu paper is probably Forte, it's quite thin and needs slightly extended development IME. About twice the time for Ilford MG does it for me but I've only used the Forte coldtone version.

 

[FrankS]

That's great Ralph, it's good to add another member practising the "dark arts". For drying RC prints, I hang them from a corner with a clothes peg on some string I put up, like a clothes-line. It's cool after a printing session to have all these 8x10's hanging from the ceiling.

 

[markinlondon]

That's great Ralph, it's good to add another member practising the "dark arts". For drying RC prints, I hang them from a corner with a clothes peg on some string I put up, like a clothes-line. It's cool after a printing session to have all these 8x10's hanging from the ceiling.

Ain't it just, Frank. When I first got my darkroom up and running and realised I had no drying facilities I just hung my prints out on the line. Sylvia was very surprised to come home and find 10 identical portraits of our friend Tom staring at her from the garden.

 

[rover]

That's great Ralph, it's good to add another member practising the "dark arts". For drying RC prints, I hang them from a corner with a clothes peg on some string I put up, like a clothes-line. It's cool after a printing session to have all these 8x10's hanging from the ceiling.

I think I will be developing in the master bath, just for ha has I will string them up across the bedroom for my wife to see while she is watching TV. Who wants to bet I will not get to do that a second time?🙄

 

[taffer]

Congrats Ralph, I'm sure you're going to enjoy the experience a lot. The only serious risk you run is getting hooked, because then chances are you'll be willing to permanently disable the 'bath' feature in your bathroom 🙄

RC's dry fine hanging in the 'classic' way. And as it's been said, it's an inner satisfaction when you nail it up and see some 'perfect' copies happily drying, lined up 🙂

One last word, in fact the word I've marked as 'master tag' after my first darkroom sessions, be methodic.

Oscar

 

[rover]

Thanks for the encouragement Oscar. My package from B&H arrived yesterday, just waiting on the paper and chemicals from Freestyle now. I can't wait, I have years of negatives to pick from, in my mind I already have images to print that I should buy some more paper!!!!

 

[peter_n]

Congrats Ralph, I too am slowly (very slowly) trying to acquire darkroom stuff. My last buy was an Omega B22XL enlarger from Texas. 😀

 

[rover]

I gave in Peter, the package from Freestyle will be here next week, but I can't wait. I ran into a shop today, bought some paper developer, and 25 sheets of 5x7. I have enough of everything else to set her up tomorrow so I can get my feet wet. I really shouldn't have spent the money, but I had too.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

So, I'm reading the prequel to the "I did it!!!!!! " thread? Hmmmm... Interesting...

Thanks for sharing your adventures with us, Ralph! I guess in some time I'll turn to you for advice. Hope you don't mind... 😉

 

[pesphoto]

Enjoy the darkroom. Its a nice escape. For print drying racks, I went to Home Depot and bought some 1x1 long pieces of wood, screwed them together and braced them, then stretch the mesh across and staple. works great.

 

[retrocam]

Cool! I've been setting up a darkroom (read: dark corner in the basement) as well for the past several weeks.

I bought some used equipment from a local lab that shut down the darkroom they had for rent. And others, I got from Freestyle. I haven't done any printing before but a pro photog showed me how.

I'll be using VC RC papers for the meantime. I think I can let 3-4 prints soak in a tray of water before taking them to the bathroom for drying. To prep the bathroom, I need to run the shower first so the drying area will be dust-free. Not an ideal workflow going up and down the stairs (basement to bathroom), but I think of it as good exercise. 😛

Pesphoto's drying rack looks good...but I'd need to free up some more space in the basement. Some time perhaps....

Please keep sharing your Darkroom Tales...🙂