Everything But The Darkroom Sink!

Hello,

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I am building a darkroom in my basement. I am done with eveything but the sink. All of your prior answers have been very helpful on other subjects. I want your opinions on what type of ABS sink I should go with. I am basically set on Delta based on my research and the variety available. I don't want to make a sink. I can comfortably go up to 72" in the space I have. What I am having trouble deciding on is what type? There are convertibles, deep on one end, etc. I am confused about what I will need, and being an example of why "Murphy's Law" was written, I don't want to make an expensive mistake.

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Although I currently don't develop color, I have in the past and I want to be able to expand into this. My primary will be B&W up to 16 X 20 prints and 20 X 24's once in a blue moon. I process film (35mm, 120 and 4 X 5) in Jobo tanks w/o motor (I use the manual roller). I want to start C-41 and E-6 processing and color prints up to 16 X 20's. Usage will be light. In the past, I have always used a laundry tub or what ever was around for washing prints. I used larger trays for temperature of print/film trays. I am ready to have a darkroom as I've always dreamed of!

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I have seached for recommendations on the web and haven't been too successful. The folks on the Graflex website have provided me with some answers. I thought a posting here may also do the trick. What do you guys recommend? Thanks.

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Best regards,

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J. P. Mose

I recommend you be patient and kind of watch what comes along becasue

more and more people are abandoning darkroom work and I see sinks

coming up for sale more and more often.

I recently installed a 6' Delta-1 ABS 6" depth. I've been very

pleased with it. It will accomodate 3-16x20 or 4-11x14 trays.

A few years ago I experienced a similar situation. A friend/workshop

teacher suggested I contact a local restaurant supply company and

look for a used but not too abused steel sink or contact a local

metal fabricator company about having one built. I print up to 16x20s

process 35-4x5 in a Jobo/Uniroller combination. I decided I wanted an

8 footx2-3 foot by 8-10 inches deep sink.

Ultimately I found that his suggestions produced better prices than

I could get if I opted for a sink from a darkroom specialist--B&H,

Calumet,etc. Leedal in Chicago often has seconds that are priced

competitively, but they were still a bit high. The local restaurant

supply house had nothing AT THAT TIME that I wanted. A local

fabricator made the sink to my specifications, and I had a stand

built for it.

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So i would suggest you at least investigate thaqt possibility. You

might be pleasantly surprised.

Delta-1 makes a wide variety of sinks, but unfortunately they don't

have a website. You can contact them to get a catalog. B&H Photo also

sells most of their sinks. I would recommend getting an ABS sink

with a high back (about 13"). This makes it easier to clean with a

spray hose without water spraying against the rear darkroom wall. It

comes in a variety of widths. You can the buy drain kit from Delta-1,

but all the other custom drainpipes can be easily made from parts at

Home Depot.

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Delta 1, 10830 Sanden Drive, Dallas TX 75238, (800) 627-0252, Fax

(800) 627-0267

Build your own sink. I used plywood and drywall screws to build a

sink to my specs, then covered the inside with epoxy resin and

fiberglass cloth on the seams. I cut a drain hole and used PVC pipe.

It ain't purdy but it gets the job done for a fraction of the cost.

I purchased a 7 foot Arkay fiberglass sink. If you use stainless

steel 16x20 trays, you can get 4 in the sink. 3 trays really isn't

enough for b&w processing, unless you have a separate out-of-sink

holding tray. It was about $1000, and more than the Delta sinks, but

I couldn't find any Delta that would handle 4 16x20 trays. One of

them looked like it would, but it had a faucet mounting area that

protruded into the sink, which cut down on the real working area.

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By the way, if you have a SS sink fabricated used 316L steel. Kitchen

grades of stainless will rust with some B&W photo chemicals.

hi there

i would second bruce's suggestion. while regular plywood is

cheeper, i would suggest getting marine plywood. it will hold up

better.

good luck!

If you go the plywood/fiberglass route, consider topping all

surfaces as a final step with GelCoat (spelling approximate).

This is the product used as a final coat on fiberglass boats, etc.,

and it easily fills rough areas and sands to a nice smooth

surface. Best of all it is available in basic white, which will

considerably brighten up your sink area.

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Hank

I agree with Bruce: build it with Plywood. I built an 8ft sink that

has not given me any problems during its 5 year life.

JP

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I recently built my sink out of plywood and lined with PVC sheeting

as suggested to me by Bruce Barnbaum. The PVC was cut by the

plastics place I purchased it from, and small pieces I could cut with

a power saw and table saw. The pieces are joined using PVC cement.

This is the third sink I built, and by far it was the easiest,

fastest, odorless, and cheapest, of them all. I have had no problems

with leaks, and it looks great. A 72 inch sink could be built in a

day.

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If anyone is interested e-mail me and I will send detailed directions.

I agree with previous posts about either building your own from wood

or checking with a local sheet metal fabricator about making one from

stainless. Wood and fiberglass is cheap and pretty easy, I have not

thought about lining with plastic but makes good sense. While the

stainless route is more expensive, the fabricator will make it

exactly to your specifications. I had one made that is about 8' by

26" with 6' about 6" deep and then a 14" deep tub on the last 2'.

the biggest advantage was dropping off the specs and picking up the

tub one week later and just dropping it into the frame and hooking up

the fixtures.

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One other option if you live in or near a fairly good sized city, is

looking for used sinks at restaurant or commercial fixture supply

houses. A common prep sink design is 8' by 26" with a tub sink in

the middle and shallow prep drain sinks on either side. Easily

adaptable for photography as you could put a removable cover with a

drain over the tub part and have the whole 8' for trays. I have seen

a couple of these at a used fixture store for $350.

I would just add to my previous post that you definitely want a deep

portion, about 16" deep by 20"-24". This allows you to clean trays

and equipment, provides a temporary print washer, water temp bath

etc. For my sink if I need the space for trays, I have a piece of

stainless with a drain hole that I can cover up the tub.

The plastic sheeting the post above was talking about may be the

product called Sintra. This is a solid, compressed sheet of PVC that

is sold in 4x8 pieces usually. It's a great fabrication material--we

use it in our shop--but it's waterproof as well. The housing for our

wing-lynch machine is made of this, and we use scraps as duckboards in

our sinks as well....anything you can do to plywood, you can do to

Sintra. You can cut it on a tablesaw, route it, drill it, form it with

heat, glue it, paint it...whatever. Runs about 100 bucks or so for a

quarter to half-inch sheet, from a plastics supplier. The same company

makes some other similar, more durable products as well. I would just

buy a PVC sink, but if I had to make one, I'd use a sheet of this

stuff and just be done with it. Good luck, MY OPINIONS as always.

Here's the manufacturer's site...

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http://www.alusuisse-comp.com/

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my opinions as always, in no way an endorsement.

I've been using the delta 6" sink for about eight years now and I'm

about ready to put it at the curb for trash collection. The problem

is it will only handle four 11x14 trays, I now use seven trays for an

acchival process, I am going to install a ten foot by thirty inch

stainless steel sink. my recommendation is build a sink of marine

grade plywood and cover it with fiberglass. make it 30" wide by as

long as you possibly can. if you haven't got one yet, good luck

I'm seeing a lot of recommendations for fiberglas here. I used it to build my last darkroom sink. For my first sink, I used paint, I think it was epoxy, over the plywood. It wasn't too bad, but the developer tended to stain it. An occasional touchup kept it in condition.

Now I'm about ready to build my third sink, again from plywood. (They keep getting bigger.) I'd like to avoid Fiberglas, because I don't loike working with it. Has anyone experimented with any recent alternative materials? I'm considering epoxy vs. polyurethane paint. Thanks for any advice you may have!

Just a wild card but if you don't like f-glass and it seems you're not into forming your own pvc sink, might you consider a ply form as mentioned and covering it with heavy duty orange plasic as used on construction sites. Not as dark as black. Crappy idea maybe but I have seen a very neatly constructed/folded sink by this method. Especially for large prints. The stuff is harder than one would reckon.

In due course you might consider swiming pool paint or concrete floor paint. Any pealing floors I have seen seem to have the dry paint quite flexable as it is peeled off. I think there is also a bituminous paint that may remain flexable. Is there not an industry two pot paint that might be suitable?

Contact your local newspapers. With the switch to digital, many

have darkroom equipment to dispose of. You may get just what

you want (plus some) at very good price or even free.