Darkroom Construction

[Troy Hamon]

Hi Gary and Jim, I appreciate your input.

On the bottom of the door there is a mounted fitting that has a bunch of rubber sweeps that are to contact the sill. The problem seems to be that the sill is not high enough and the sweep is translucent. In combination, that lets in a lot of light. In fact, the door is not quite straight, so the side with hinges is a little better fit (but light still comes through the translucent rubber flaps) while the side with the knob has an actual gap beneath it.

I bought a threshold to put down and solve the problem. I tested it out and it sealed the light out very well...so I cut it down and fitted it in and then discovered that the result was that the door was pushed up too high in the frame. As a result, it was tearing itself apart at the top...

If I could shave half the wood off the new threshold, it might work, and I think it amounts to what you are suggesting, Gary. If not, please help me understand what you are suggesting. I could also go get a smaller threshold, which would probably be smarter than trying to reduce this one.

Jim, I have blackout fabric and black tape, so I could also devise a light trap on the bottom of the door. I will probably do that, but I really want to do a bit more than that because I don't like the small gap and the air passage through there. Although that is probably not materially important since I leave a fan on almost all the time anyway...

I did use foam to seal the sides of the door where there was light intruding, which is why it's just the bottom now...

[johnnywalker]

What I did was close the door and nail a batten down on the floor adjacent to the door. Put foam on the batten and push the batten into the door, and screw it down. Then the door has something to close into, just like the sides.

[Troy Hamon]

I took a friend who actually knows something about construction out there with me...and he said the sill is adjustable! So we raised it up a ways, but not enough to totally solve the problem. When it gets to that point, the door raises too high in the frame and the top of the door starts tearing itself apart.

The threshold is high enough now that there is no air leaking, but the translucence of the material on the rubber flaps is letting in just the faintest of glimmers. I am going to try to put some blackout tape on the outermost rubber flanges to see if that will do it...

And I really need to add in shelves for the dry side underneath the counters, put a surface over the hole where the kitchen sink was in the counter, and get all the construction materials and tools out of there...I think I better go get busy...I also have some convenience plumbing to do (it's functional now, but I'd like to improve on 'functional'), and I need to do the exterior electrical, both a porch light and an exterior socket fitting are just wires hanging and waiting for attention...

[glbeas]

Troy I think you have the gist of what I was describing. The sweep I got was of black rubber material from Home Depot. I had little trouble with the sill as I was setting it on a concrete floor. All I did was close the door and position it under the edge in the best position and sink some concrete nails. If your sill is built into your door frame you probably need to do a little creative engineering like you've decribed. You might try putting a sweep on both front and back of the door, adjusting it so the sweep in front gets trapped under against the sill as you close it, or you could make a cylinder of felt and tack it to the botom edge of the door so it hangs down against the sill, the object being to make a multilayered baffle for the light. Hope you get something going that works well.

[Kino]

I also worked some on lightproofing the door and the wall/ceiling joints today. The bottom of the door is the biggest problem at this point, but I didn't have a solution for that yet...

The doors we have at work in our darkrooms have an automatic lowering device so that when the door closes, a black rubber seal is lowered to make contact with the floor. This is accomplished by a button that protrudes from the sill area and hits the interior of the door frame as the door is closed and a cam lowers the seal on the sill.

Can check for you tomorrow if interested...


Frank

[Troy Hamon]

Frank, thank you for the offer, but I think I'll have it with a bit more weatherstripping at this point. The addition of a little blackout tape has done wonders and there isn't much left to worry about as far as light leaks. I didn't get much done on the plumbing or electrical though...but since the remaining things to do in those areas is luxury, it doesn't much matter if I do it tomorrow or next week...

I also didn't get my shelves made. Maybe next weekend. I really need to do that so I can move out all construction stuff and get to the important work of getting myself organized. Hasn't happened once in my life, but it seems like I ought to try...

[Troy Hamon]

A belated update...which is fitting since progress is generally a bit late as well...

I used scrap OSB to make the rather large shelves beneath the dry side counters a few weeks back. Since the OSB is a bit rough and it would wear on the paint pretty hard when stuff was slid in and out, I waffled around then decided to put down my last linoleum scraps to take the scuffing. This is all well and good...but I really was down to just scraps of thin strips. I finally talked myself into the project, got it laid down, and then started the process of painting between all the strips quite some time ago (it's all blurred together now...not sure exactly when I did this...).

In the middle of all this, I realized that I needed to make a temporary cover for the 'sinkhole' that will eventually be a lightbox. My first attempt was ancient plywood that had weathered to pieces, and wasn't very good. I found a scrap of slightly-weathered finish-grade plywood and fit it to the hole with guides underneath to hold it in place...then forgot to paint it while I was painting the shelves. I finally finished painting it today and put it in place. So my work surface, while not completely finished, is completely functional.

So what did I do? I sanded down the painted surface on the wet side and put another coat of paint on! Probably one more tomorrow just for fun and because I'd hate to start working any earlier than I have to out there... No really, I just keep thinking another coat would be good. And the pressboard core of the door that has been turned into my wet surface was pretty rough after painting, so I'm smoothing out the surfaces that I am in contact with.

I also started working on exterior electrical fittings a while back. The porch light is installed, but the exterior outlet led to some problems because after all the wires were hooked up, I broke off one of the screws that holds the outlet into the box...broke it off in the fitting in the box...couldn't figure out how to fix it, asked a friend of mine, and he said get another box. Phooey! But I did finally get around to fixing that. I have a line that will go to another exterior fitting that needs to be put in still. Hopefully soon.

Today I installed the exterior duct fittings so wind won't blow in as freely and critters can't set up nests in the ductwork. I hope I didn't trap anybody up there, but I couldn't scare anything out...I guess I'll find out soon...I've never noticed any activity so I'll hope it is good.

I bought omnidirectional red LED lights from superbrightleds.com, found on another thread here, and they are great. I'll do a safelight test as soon as I get set up, but they seem like just the thing so far. I love LEDs, I want some bright enough for home lighting...I hope they come up with some soon that work for that.

After filling my water tank, I knew I wanted to bring a water line in from the outside world without needing to come in through the door with a hose. I fit a spigot on the outside wall underneath the floor, brought the pipe up through the floor, and put on another spigot. I then put a Y on that spigot, one side of which is attached to a hose that runs up into the tank for filling. The other side of the Y goes straight to the other tap on the faucet, so I can in theory run pressure from the house if I ever want out of the one tap, with gravity from the tank out of the other. Pretty cool.

My only connection to the ground is my drain. I wasn't really thinking of that...but it heaved pretty good on me. Pushed up an inch or so. I got it back into place today, but that may be a problem that needs addressed in a more comprehensive way in the future. We'll see.

I think that's most of the progress. I can tell you that I am tantalizingly close now. The remaining tasks...
Inside:
1. Sand and paint the final coat on the wet side.
2. Cut insulation pieces to cover breaker box (which is uninsulated due to taking up the entire stud space) and window (for an easy light-tight fitting).

Outside:
1. Install one more exterior electrical outlet.
2. Install the second grounding rod for good measure.
3. Insulate the floor. I've been back and forth on this, but since I don't intend to heat the place all winter, I'd rather have less space to heat, so the floor it is.
4. Build skirting...

[Troy Hamon]

Summer is a ridiculously busy time for me...but I finished the exterior electrical outlets, the interior painting, enough light-proofing to be functional, and have organized sufficiently to be fully operational! The studio/gallery end (open wall at the end where framed images will be hung and a backdrop and lights can be arranged) is a pile of construction material and a few tools, but still...major progress.

I've developed film out there three times now. Each time is another reminder that I'm not ready to print...except today I got things organized and by golly I'm even ready for that. I keep finding more things to do though. Today, it was hanging my timers on the walls to help unclutter the countertops. Furthermore, I noticed that the ABS ducting that runs along behind the wet bench for exhaust ventilation is a nice fit for developing tanks...

Still need to do skirting, insulate the floor, and put in my second grounding rod. I'm considering adding a lean-to to each end of the structure to make it a darkroom/garden shed all in one, and will need to decide before I know how I'm going to do the skirting. But right now, I'm working inside.

When I get my hands on a d****** camera I'll post a couple of interior shots in the darkroom portraits thread...

[MurrayMinchin]

HEE-HEEE-HEEEEEEEEEEE!

Murray

[Troy Hamon]

Well...anybody that has been wondering how to visualize the things I've been describing here over the past year can mosey over to the darkroom portraits thread for the first visual update...assuming I can get the images uploaded...