Darkroom equipment

[dave s]

Hi again guys.

You may remember a couple of months ago I informed you of the situation I was in with regard to clearing the equipment from the esate of a close friend who sadly passed away last year.

Probate is through and I have been reading up in the manuals and on line and am now in a position where I have at least some idea of what it is I am dealing with.

I've listed the bigger stuff on everybody's favourite auction site.

Start here:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300543616899&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT
and check my other items.

Dave.

 

[Kev M]

Hi Dave,

I thought someone was coming round to sort all this for you/take it off your hands? I've been away lately and had forgotten all about it. That's a nice setup you have there, same modle as what I have except it looks newer and you've got boxes for stuff where mine came in carrier bags!

Good luck with the sale, I think someone is going to get a bargain. If you don't get any buyers there's at least one piece in there I'd be interested in, maybe more.

 

[dave s]

Hi Kev.
Yes, I did have someone from the forum visit and they were most helpfull with sorting, identifying and saying "this goes with that" etc.

They did have a few things off me but suggested that it would be ideal to go as a full system to somebody setting up a darkroom but the worth of everything would probably be outside the scope of a newcomer.

I've been watching the same items go through ebay for the past couple of months and when the offer of free listing came up last wekend I decided to post the main items with a sensible starting price. I expect the usual 'last second' bidding will occur resulting in them not achieving their full potential.

There is a lot of interest; there are more than 80 'watchers' over 8 of the 9 items and bids on 3 of them already.

As the listings state, I have got quite a few odds which I might put up on this and the Film & Darkroom User Forums.

Dave

 

[jemdna]

WHY WHY WHY does this come up when im saving for a wedding and holiday... damn you karma damn you!!

 

[Kev M]

Hi Dave, I got sidetracked on the weekend and missed the sale for the Nova print washer which I'm annoyed about. Hope you're happy with the prices you got for everything.

 

[dave s]

jemdna and Kev M

Sorry you missed out.
There are some odds and ends left but no large equipment.
I've just started a thread about thermo' bottles and I'll put photos up later of the other stuff to see if anybody is interested.

Dave.

 

[TheBigYin]

Dave, as your thermo bottles thread has vanished (presumably for your attempt at off-classified trading) - I think the bottles are a great idea for someone, but personally, I've got my routine down well enough for my needs, and I wouldn't have been interested, even if you'd have gone the right way about things and posted 'em in the classifieds. :shrug:

 

[dave s]

No, the 'make me an offer' was a tongue in cheek response to your comments about the bottles.

You're right the thread has been removed on the grounds of 'back door selling' and I fully accept the situation.

My problem now is that I would not want these and other things to go to waste, I believe that they are pretty unique but I have no way of 'naming' them in order to market them through conventional channels and I can't post them on the forum until I have 100 posts under my belt. This one makes 15 but I know nothing worth saying about photography so I really don't think I'm going to get anywhere. I've had a look through the different areas but I cannot add anything to any thread that I've so far found.

I believe that my situation is slightly exeptional in that I have no contacts who can guide me. Unlike for example, a berieved partner who would perhaps know their spouses club members and probably understand a bit about the subject themselves etc.

I was left with agreat deal of what was expensive equipment but most importantly it was my friends life and passion. I will not see it thrown in a skip but I don't understand a lot of it.

Thanks to members of this forum I have been able to pass most of the larger items on to good homes, including donating some of the stuff to colleges etc. What's left may be rubbish but how will I find out?

Dave.

 

[captainjack]

Can you put some photo's up of the items and then maybe help you tell you what they are

No, the 'make me an offer' was a tongue in cheek response to your comments about the bottles.

You're right the thread has been removed on the grounds of 'back door selling' and I fully accept the situation.

My problem now is that I would not want these and other things to go to waste, I believe that they are pretty unique but I have no way of 'naming' them in order to market them through conventional channels and I can't post them on the forum until I have 100 posts under my belt. This one makes 15 but I know nothing worth saying about photography so I really don't think I'm going to get anywhere. I've had a look through the different areas but I cannot add anything to any thread that I've so far found.

I believe that my situation is slightly exeptional in that I have no contacts who can guide me. Unlike for example, a berieved partner who would perhaps know their spouses club members and probably understand a bit about the subject themselves etc.

I was left with agreat deal of what was expensive equipment but most importantly it was my friends life and passion. I will not see it thrown in a skip but I don't understand a lot of it.

Thanks to members of this forum I have been able to pass most of the larger items on to good homes, including donating some of the stuff to colleges etc. What's left may be rubbish but how will I find out?

Dave.

 

[dave s]

Can you put some photo's up of the items and then maybe help you tell you what they are

Can I start by saying; CaptainJack, I notice that you have been a forum member for 18 months; you are obviously well into photography, yet you still only have 82 posts.....what chance do I stand of making the magic 100?

Anyway, I know what they do and what they are for, I had gone through all that in the thread that I had started before.

Basically they are a screw topped glass jar with a very accurate digital dual readout (max/min) thermometer built into them for absolute control when heating the chemicals within them in the hot water bath..

My problem is what to call them!

From what people have told me I don't think there is anything like them on the market.

There are 9 of them and they cost my friend about £300 to make them.

I'm going to risk putting the photo's on this post and if the Mod's choose to remove them or this post so be it. But before they do I would like to say ...

"I'm just looking for help"!

 

[freecom2]

I'd probably search for something like "home made advanced digital temperature gauge" or something to that effect.

 

[dave s]

I'd probably search for something like "home made advanced digital temperature gauge" or something to that effect.

That's the point.

I really don't think any one would search for such a thing because they wouldn't know it existed.....would you know if you hadn't seen this thread? And would you really have typed in all that?

People look for either the specific 'name' of something such as 'Durst M405' or they search for generic type such as Photographic enlarger. This stuff has neither!

 

[TheBigYin]

I'd list them as "C41/E6/B&W Processing Chemical Bottles with Temperature Monitoring" I think. That way they'll show up in Searches for colour slide/negative and B&W, and for Chemical Bottles.

 

[dave s]

I think were getting close Mark, Thank you.

Appart from the 'chemical bottles' bit I wouldn't have known any of that.

I can usually hit 'key' words but I hadn't got a clue with these.

I don't know if they should go as a 'set'; do you specifically need 9, or are they something that a user might just want 1 or 2 of?

The question now is are they worth putting on?

Do you think they are a mere curiosity.... an expensive unnecessary excentricity.... or a b!##?^ good .."I wish I'd thought of that".. idea?

 

[TheBigYin]

List the labels that are on the bottles, and we can sort them into sets for you

Personally, I think they're a good idea, though perhaps a touch of the "sledgehammer to crack a wallnut" approach. Personally, I stuff the requisite chemical bottles and the developing tank into a insulated picnic box, 2/3rd fill it with water @ 40c (for colour processing) and drop a thermometer into the first developer bottle. When it hit's 39c it's ready to pitch the first dev. and start processing. The Thermometer is rinsed and dropped into the second bottle, and so on down the line. Having something that beeps if it drops below 39c would be cool though! As I may have said before, the single best thing you can do to ensure colour consistency in E6 (slides) or C41(Colour Negative) processing is get the temperature right.

 

[dave s]

perhaps a touch of the "sledgehammer to crack a wallnut" approach.

That was my friend all over.

You'd have loved his film drying cabinet he made.

It started life as a fridge /freezer; the type that's about 5 foor tall with the small freezer door on top.

He ripped out all the workings and the partition that separated the two compartments leaving all the insulation in the walls.

He then fitted a 4" diameter extractor fan in the base (the sort fitted in toilets that come on when you switch the light on) .

A flexi hose ran from that, up the back and onto the air intake of a salon quality hair dryer.

The hair drier was set into the top panel (roof) of the fridge blowing down over a deflector plate made from the partition removed earlier. (this is getting to sound like a Blue Peter script).

There were 3 temperature sensors mounted top, middle and bottom on the back wall inside the cabinet, wired to 3 separate digital temperature modules.

All these 'additions' were fixed in to specialy made recesses and housings made from epoxy resin and fibre glass and sealed with silicon.

So, you switched on the extractor fan and selected one of the 3 heat settings (or cold) on the hair dryer and watched the digital readouts as the warm air circulated, dust free, in a cabinet with magneticaly sealed doors.

Simples!!!!