LumberJocks Woodworking Forum banner

Project Information

Here is the finished dark box. Or at least, my part in the project is done. It still needs a blackout cloth to be fitted. This will be used as a portable dark room for developing wet plate photos. If you've ever seen pictures of the old time photo equipment where the photographer has a cloth draped over them, it's this kind of work.

The dark box is framed in red oak, with 1/2" birch ply panels. The exterior was colored with gel stain and topped with several coats of Arm-R-Seal. The interior was painted flat white in order to reflect ambient red light that will be used inside the box when developing plates. A red LED will provide interior light.

Included a wet plate image of myself that my photographer friend took, because tintypes are freakin' cool. The complete construction gallery can be seen here.

Gallery

Comments

· Registered
Joined
·
1,833 Posts
Cool project…. Should serve you well.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
18,702 Posts
Well done.
 

· Premium Member
Joined
·
8,024 Posts
Nice build Brian! Your friend does good work too. Thanks for sharing.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
0 Posts
Looks great, what are you using for legs? I am planning a similar box for wet plate and was happy to see this one.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
1,217 Posts
klev - The friend who commissioned the box is going to use a folding table as a base for an upcoming event. I might eventually build a basic folding stand for it.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
103 Posts
Nice…perpetuating a historic photographic process. Please post some photos.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
1 Posts
A bit off topic, but did you know that the term "Dark Box" itself originates not from the field of photography, but from the religious 16th-century innovation, designed to ensure that confession can be heard in a church, not in a priest's bedroom?
 
Top