Month: September 2016

Yikes

9/15/16. I  need a new sink. I made this one about 12 years ago and used polyester resin, which as it turned out never really bonded with the plywood substrate. It’s started to crack and flake badly. The finish on the sink was never really even substandard- the resin went on like molasses reclaimed from a sandy bog. At least I tinted it black, which helped mute the ugliness a bit. But for the past two years I’ve had to trowel on silicone caulk to help make it last just a little longer. I can’t stand another year of this. The weather’s turning cool so need to get started on a new one. This will probably be the most tediously detailed diary that I’ve posted here. I have no memory of how I (mis)made the last one, and if I ever have to repair this new version, the details may help to isolate what I’ve done wrong.

After spending so much time making cameras, film holders and sundry other crap, the irony of taping a negative to a plain piece of glass for scanning is not lost on me. Glass does work surprisingly well considering the minimal expense and effort, but I’ve missed working in the shop so thought I would try to come up with a decent carrier for my Epson scanner. I though about modifying a standard enlarger negative carrier, but in my experience those need the tension supplied by the closing of the negative staging on the enlarger itself to keep them closed and flat. Not to mention good ones are difficult to find and expensive in the 5×7 format.