No Tip and Drip developing tanks in this darkroom!
I got tired of fighting the tip 'n drip leaking down my arm in the darkroom and besides, when I needed to do a roll it was several rolls. Then I got involved it teaching kids to do their own photos, and they can sure go through film. Well anyway, go by a chunk of ABS plastic pipe think it is 4" and the knock out plugs for them. You will need to decide how many spools you would want to use at one time, and base your tank length from that. Make 3 tubes the same length and using ABS glue, glue a cap in the bottom of each tube, make sure and use plenty of glue you do not want it to leak! You will want a knock out cap to use for a lid but don't glue it. and if you would like, take two knock outs, cut off the lip so it will fit into the top, glue them back to back and make a floating lid, if you are careful cutting off the lip, you could glue several pieces of the lip together to make a tab to glue to the floating lid so you can grasp if to remove it when you are going to use the tanks.
I use D76 and D76 replenisher to maintain my solutions so they are always up and maintained and don't have to dump it very often.. Now In the photo, I used a stainless steel rod bent into an inverted "T" to put the spools on when when I am developing. A friend couldn't find the rod so he used 3/8 -1/2"? PVC plastic pipe and glued a cap on it to hold the spools at the bottom. If you come up with a better idea blog me.... but it works great. and you don't have to do a lot of set-up to do film, load the spools and dip. I also have small pieces of glow in the dark tape marking the edge of my tanks so I can put the spools in easier in the dark. |