Dark Rooms

[Emma A]

Hello,

Would anyone be willing to share photos of their darkroom? The management of my company doesn't like how messy our darkroom can get with the cleaning screens, so we are looking for alternatives...

[Chuggins]

Emma - What is your darkroom like? I have been in many print shops big and small. Some far far messier than others. What is management specifically concerned with?

[Emma A]

It's a very small darkroom, with a mop sink we use for the washout station, we drain the washout station into the sink and use it for water.

They are concerned with the ink staining the mop sink, and also when we wash out the screen it splatters on the wall (higher then we could clean).

[Chuggins]

Ahhhhh. That is a very very small space indeed.

Plastisol ink should not stain plastics (mop sink). In fact most inks should not stain plastics. There can end up being some pigment getting lodged into the nooks and cranies of spots that are roughed up, but using some haze remover around the basin will clean out the majority if not all of it.

As for the walls - If you have any vinyl rolls that have grip (think sticker vinyl) you can use that to cover up the walls. Or anything really that will not allow splatter to penetrate and get the walls dirty would help. When needed, you can pull it down, throw it away / recycle it and replace with a new covering.

I know our good friends at Golden Press have a small dark room and it sounds similar. Here is a link to a video they did in their space. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2zM6fvH1Yk. Let us know if there is anything in there that is helpful.

If you think it would be beneficial - myself or a team member can do a video call where we look at your darkroom and help with suggestions to make it more efficient.