I used to do my own printing/developing about fifteen years ago and am in the process of building my own darkroom again. One of the problems I encountered in the past was keeping the chemicals at the required temperature. It seemed that before every print I would have to heat up the developer to the correct temperature, which was very irritating and spoiled the fun. My question is does anyone have any ideas how I can ensure that the developer etc termperature is maintained for an extended period of time ie 1-2 hrs ? Thanks for your help,

-- nick ure (nure@zephyr.net), January 25, 2000

Answers

How about keeping the room at the same temperature? Most B&W chemistry works fine at 20 deg C (68 deg F). But if you like working in the cold, you can get dish warmers, that sit under the dishes.

-- Alan Gibson (Alan.Gibson@technologist.com), January 26, 2000.

The Rolls Royce answer is to get a Jobo Tempering box (TBE2 or TBE2/12). These have temperature control and a bunch of bottles for holding chemistry. The TBE2 has space for 6 1 liter bottles (inluded) 4 260ml graduates and one 2 reel developing tank. The TBE2/12 has space for 12 1 liter bottles.

For trays, set up your sink so you can have water in the sink with the trays in that water. You then hold the water at the proper temp and the chemistry holds at the proper temp. There are several ways to hold the water at the right temp from a slow run of hot water, to an aquarium heater, to a thermostatically controlled water control.

Overall, I would just keep the room at the right temp for printing, and use a tempering box for film, when needed.

-- Terry Carraway (TCarraway@compuserve.com), January 26, 2000.

Consider yourself fortunate. Heating up is a lot easier than cooling down, which is what we have to do here in the desert. In fact, I have been guilty of waiting till December to develop negs exposed in the summer.

-- J.L. Kennedy (jlkennedy@qnet.com), January 27, 2000.

If you're building a darkroom then I'd imagine it shouldn't be too hard or too much of an additional expense to get a temperature regulating device installed with the plumbing you need. There are various makes & models from the simple - hot and cold spiggots with one faucet with a built in thermometer or thermometer "holster", to the more advanced digital ones that can regulate flow as well as temp. It depends on how much you can afford.

Additionally, you're either making a sink or buying one. Either way, make sure it accomodates the right tray size and number and allows additional room for a tempering bath - just enough water of the right temp to keep the tray temp where you want 'em. In the negative, Adams recomends a system of smaller trays, sitting on oven/grill racks in larger trays filled with water.

My darkroom is a 6' X 6' X 6' former walk-in cedar closet with no plumbing. I find in the winter here in Northwest Indiana, that a hot plate with a Visionware 1 qt bowl filled with water maintains the heat and humidity quite nicely. However, the darkroom is right next to the furnace/coal room too so that probably makes it easier to keep things warm.

I usually print for 8 - 12 hours at a stretch. Weston used a light- tight wooden box with a bulb in it to keep his paper developer warm - sort of an open ended contact printer that the tray would sit in. I don't recall what wattage the bulb was. Presumably it was OC filtered or something. I think I can find the citation on this.

-- Sean yates (yatescats@yahoo.com), January 29, 2000.

I would like to turn my previous comment into a question. Does anyone know of ways to chill incoming water from about 75 down to 68 degrees? I am so adverse to testing that I can't bear to think of re-testing for a higher temperature. Besides, can the exact same results be had processing film at higher tempatures and shorter times?

-- J.L. Kennedy (jlkennedy@qnet.com), January 30, 2000.

My friend and I use a fish tank heater from Wallmart. Keeps our P30 chems for Ilfordchrome within 1 degree all night. james

-- Mr.Lumberjack (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), January 30, 2000.

To cool the water you can put a coil or copper tubing (refrigerant tubing works best, it is easy to hand form into coils), in a bucket with water and ice.

This will give you colder water. You can adjust the number of coils for getting as close as possible to the desired temp, but it will fluctuate with the incoming water temp. Just keep adding ice as it melts.

BTW you can buy a coil of refrigerant tubing at most any hardware store or home projects store.

-- Terry Carraway (TCarraway@compuserve.com), January 31, 2000.