MAJOR PROGRESS!

It's one step away from being my first functionally perfect darkroom.

Now, I'm not at home and haven't got access to a camera to summarise the progress, but basically here goes:

The inside is painted and finished. White oil paint on everything, which makes it liquid-tight for any spills.

The outside has been painted matt black. It's in an out-of-the-way corner of a spare room, and painting it black makes it stand out less than if it were white.

The black light-tight cloth that wraps around the doors, ceiling and floor of the cupboard has been bought and installed, and now when the doors open it unfolds with them, and standing in front of it it looks like peering into the ground-glass bit of a TLR - dark sides, and one front opening. Now I just need to make the cloth door thing for the front, which uses a zip and velcro to block out the light when the door is closed. More photos soon.

I am really excited! It's so nice. The drying cabinet has seen heavy use, even with a makeshift 'hook' to attach the films to that bends up the bellows of the air vent to grip on without piercing the paint for moisture proofing. The only issue is that 35mm 36exp films have barely any free space below them, something I would redesign if I ever built this again. However, since I normally use 120 film, it's not an issue unless I'm developing friends' film.

yeah!

And I've also been dabbling with colour developing, both C-41 and E6. I use a cheap-as-possible stainless tank from freestyle plus the cheapest stainless reels. I use glass bottles to hold the chemicals, store them in an old barfridge when I'm not using them with a layer of argon gas to minimise oxidation.  I get the temperature to 100F +/- 0.5F with the use of an old kettle, a Paterson colour thermometer and an eski about a foot deep with the water. I make the water about 115F, and then wait for it to cool to the right temp before starting, which easily lets me load the film into the tank with a (for now) dark bag. I use this heating water for rinses, and since I haven't got a sink, let alone a hot water tap, I pour the rinse waste into a bucket which is then used to water the weeds. They don't seem to be effected, though; so the diluted rinsewater musn't be too bad chemically.
I've done about 8 batches of two-120-rolls each bach, and each one has worked very well.