|
|
|
-
Just replaced a kitchen and every outlet in that room is protected by a GFCI outlet. Probably cost and extra $32.00 to do it that way.
My next project is to build my darkroom in the unfinished cellar of the house; this project starts right after the holidays; just before the vacation in the south. This thread has been most helpful when looking for ideas to make my darkroom complete on the first try.
Thanks everybody!
-
In my ceiling - the suspended ceiling tile type - I used the type of flexible tiles rather than the stiffer ones to allow easier access to the joist. I initially had a problem with a light leak when the light in the adjoining room was tuned on - but only once. I just open up the ceiling and installed insulation in the ceiling joists on the near the wells. This stopped the light leaks. Over the sink and in another corner of the room I replaced the ceiling tile with 2x2 foot squares of the honeycomb type of florescent light covers. These have small 1/4 inch squares in them that allow me to hang film from them for drying. Since I process 4x5, 5x7 and 8x10 in hangers it is a simple method of hanging films and since the humidity level in the darkroom is fairly high after processing film their is not a lot of dust in the air. There is nothing hanging from the ceiling to get in the way as these are recessed into the T-BAR frames. I also use these light covers for duckboards on the bottom of my darkroom sink.
Gord
-
Light leaks from flourescent lights...now this is important news as I try to plan my in-counter lightbox. I had no idea. I'm not sure whether I'll go ahead and design it for flourescent lighting or not, but I will sure take some care about whether it is used at any time before I develop film... Of course, what I'd really like is for all my lights to be LED, but they just aren't real affordable yet on the front end. Maybe next year...
-
Troy -
The concern that Gord was raising is that fluorescent light filters sometimes leak light into the space above the ceiling, and if you have a dropped ceiling arrangement, this stray light *could* find its way through the ceiling and into an adjacent area.
My experience is that one of the first things you will do (after sweeping the darkrrom four or five times to get rid of construction dust) is close the door, turn off the lights, let your eyes become accustomed to darkness, and then search for light leaks from adjacent rooms. And you will find some - guaranteed. I found myself adding weather stripping around the door, jamming sheets of cardboard in the ceiling, and any other trick I could think of to eventually kill all those leaks. It's part of the process of commissioning a darkroom.
You will want to have your in-counter light box turned off most of the time you are printing, turning it on only to examine negatives when your paper boxes are securely closed. But, you need to be aware that there is a tendency for fluoescent lights to glow faintly for a minute or so after they have been turned off. I have a fluorescent light box in my darkroom, and in my former darkroom I had a fluorescent light mounted under a shelf. I never had a problem with this residual glow affecting printing paper - it's actually pretty faint. But I have heard that it can fog film, so the prudent thing is to just make sure that the fluorescent light has been off for a couple of minutes before bringing out film.
-
Just noticed an extremely helpful thread on installation of plasterboard and plumbing that I thought should be linked from here...
-
Sponsored Ad. (Subscribers to APUG have the option to remove this ad.)
-
Whither the weather...
Now don't get me wrong, I love winter. I love going out for a run in the freezing cold wearing a facemask and ski goggles and looking like a refugee from a bank robbery gone bad, with my poodle trotting along next to me with his fuzzy face covered with frozen condensation (I'm sure my face looks like that too, though I can't see it...). I love taking out my camera gear and setting up while wearing more clothes than most of my relatives from the warmer parts of the earth would believe could be simultaneously donned, and finding a visual gem that only the adventurous will ever experience in real living color. I love nights that are so clear and dark that the entire sky looks alive with stars right in our front yard (meaning we don't have too much light pollution out here in the bush, at least not where my house is...). But what does all this have to do with darkroom construction?
Well...that is one thing that I am not so pleased with. I had grand plans of getting this darkroom construction project done by mid-October. Then after repeated delays I was hoping for early November. Then after further delays I was hoping for mid-November. And then the cold hit. We're not talking garden-variety cold, we're talking most nights below zero for a couple of weeks now. Thanksgiving day we had a record low of -27F (and yes, I went out for an 8 mile run with the dog, though it had warmed up to -23F when we started and was all the way to -14F by the time we finished...practically tropical). We did have a couple of warmer days, but of course they fell during my only trip away from home of the November/December period.
The situation is this. I am pretty much done inside the darkroom until I have the flooring installed. But the adhesive for linoleum won't work at these temperatures, when the floor is uninsulated. But it isn't really possible to insulate the floor at these temperatures, either. Perhaps you now see the problem. There are a few piddling things I can accomplish in the meantime. But not much. And I can't really use screws or nails in wood that is exposed to the cold because at these temperatures, it will just split the wood anyway. So what lessons have I learned from this experience? First, get your darkroom construction project done on time if at all possible. Second, if you have a plan to insulate your floor, do it right after your floor joists are put up, and before you have any floorboard put down. That's right, when you can work on the floor without being on your back below the building with limited work space, but can instead work from above with ample room. Why on earth didn't I think of that? Well, I did, but not in time. Hopefully it will prove helpful to another person building a darkroom...
In the meantime, I'm hoping for some +20F weather sooner rather than later so I can finish this project. Because I have a bunch of photographic projets that are pending film development and printing...wish me luck (or don't, up to you...but I'll pretend you do...).
-
Yeah, you need to rent one of those propane powered blowers to heat the darkroom from the underside while you work on it. Might get it above freezing briefly. All I can figure would be to tent the structure and run some heat inside the tent so you can finish things. Might get a bit pricey to do that though. Good luck!
-
Well folks, the joke's on me. As I was whining, the mercury was rising, and it's now threatening to melt everything out there tomorrow. It claims that we'll have warm weather from now until Friday (warm for us), so this might be my chance to make the floor insulation happen. Because although glbeas is right, there is a way to do it, I'd rather get this all done pronto without needing to hire a heater and associated equipment. Tomorrow's the day!
-
Great! Now quit posting and get it done!
I want to see something in the gallery!
-
Gary,
Thanks for the kick in the pants. I actually took today off work and put in the last electrical fittings and am working on getting one of the grounding rods into the (very) frozen ground. Not done with that yet, but made some good progress. Oh, to own a jackhammer, or know somebody who wanted to let me use theirs... But really, what does it matter, since I'm getting it done and it looks like all will be well? I had forgotten about the grounding rods in my angst over the flooring. Now, it's warmed up so much today that tomorrow I think I may turn the heat back on inside the shed and put down flooring and leave the skirting until next spring...how's that for turnabout?
Why would I do such a thing after my passionate, though likely not eloquent, explanation above about why I want to get it done? Well, primarily because the ground is completely frozen and I need to do some ground contour work before I permanently attach the frame for skirting. And I think I'm going to go back to my plan to insulate the skirting instead of the floor. Since I won't really be heating the space below the floor anyway, it will just be a weather barrier most likely. Anybody have a strong opinion about whether to insulate the floor or the skirting? I've had a number of people tell me that it doesn't matter, and I'm leaning toward the skirting because it takes less insulation. In the meantime, I think I'm looking at finalizing the functionality of the building without having actually done any skirting at all. Might mean I won't be using the darkroom at -20F and below this winter, but I think I can live with that. It would be nice to be able to use it at least at some point when the weather is warmer, like now for instance...
|
|
Adv Reply
