A warm and sunny day is a treat in the Bay Area in mid-winter. We are supposed to be unhappy it isn’t raining because we are likely to have drought conditions this summer, but I just couldn’t mope around properly – too many daguerreian projects were beckoning.

I started the day cleaning up the aftermath of building the third design of my gilding stand. In spite of some rather severe training at the hands of my father, I have been known to leave a messy workbench from time to time at the end of a long project. :0

But – in two shakes most things were back in their places. Then I turned my attention to the fume hood. We had a couple of days of overnight freezes a while ago and the adhesive on my fancy magnetic tape face panel anchors had decided it wasn’t cold proof. Several of the acrylic panels had rocketed to the floor as a result. I had hunted the aisles of Home Depot some days ago and decided on a contact cement called “Goop”. Today’s test run went well, so I will re-anchor all the mag tape eventually. Today I just fixed the failed pieces.

While I was working around the hood I became aware that I was getting too much fluctuation in the suction when breezes blew and I also have a huge light leak coming in one side of the fan. After some testing I realized that I am just going to have to reduce the size of the work opening to increase the air flow. Back to Tap Plastics – maybe tomorrow. Sorry Superbowl. I also came up with a plan to add charcoal filtration mats to the exhaust side of the fan to block the light. Home Depot tonight!

Those problem on their way to being  solved, I added a roll-up black vinyl curtain at the door – to handle the last major light leaks coming in at the latch and the door corners. I still have a few spots to caulk but they are small. The last part of the afternoon was spent mixing photo chemistry for tomorrow’s camera test.

Once it got dark I turned on the safe light, broke open a new pack of FB Warmtone  multigrade paper and loaded up three 8×10 film holders. Er… make that – tried to load up three film holders.  I have never actually measured any film on the few occasions that I have worked with sheet film in the past. As those of you more experienced hands likely know – not all 8×10 film holders are actually 8″x10″. It seems they are more like 7 7/8 x 9 7/8. (Or thereabouts). News to me.

Fortunately – my father’s teaching about neat workshops had prevailed earlier in the day. My hand reached out in the dark and found the scissors exactly where they were supposed to be. A bit of free hand trimming and I was back in business. Six exposures available for the camera test tomorrow.

My father would have been proud.

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