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Darkroom Furniture: Plumbing supply board
SummaryTools
Materials
Construction
Use
Comments
Summary
The incoming water plumbing is all on this board. Allowing the plumbing work to be done outside the darkroom, plus the board can be moved easier at a later date. The hot and cold water enter through the hoses that go behind the sink in the picture, just to the left of center. A T joint on each line sends some flow to the faucet (far left) and some to the valve immediately above the T. The output from the valves is mixed in another T joint. The combined water is routed through a filter, to an Econo-temp thermometer, to two output spigots. The board itself is coated in the same liquid plastic paint used on the sink.
Tools
- Screwdriver - I prefer a handheld power driver or drill motor
- Pipe Wrenches
- Drill motor and drill to make holes for the faucet input pipes
Materials
- 4 T joints
- 4 90 degree elbow joints
- 1 long threaded pipe (mine is 16")
- 3 3" threaded pipes
- 10 1 1/2" threaded pipes
- 2 valves (one of mine has a red knob for hot, the other blue for cold)
- Laundry style faucet (has hose threads)
- 2 spigots
- 2 6' hoses, one end female to attach to pipe thread, the other female to attach to the water supply
- 2 24" hoses, one end female to attach to pipe thread, the other to attach to the faucet
- 2 18" hoses, one end female to attach to pipe thread, the other to attach to the filter
- 6 pipe wall holders (wrap around the pipe and can be screwed to the board)
- About 20 short screws (to hold the pipes to the board)
- About 10 longer screws (to hold the board to the wall)
- Econo-temp thermometer
- Water Filter (check the temperature rating, mine is rated to 140 degrees)
- 1x4 lumber, about 16" long
- plywood or pressed board for the back board (mine is 2' high by 6' long.
- plumbers tape
- plumbers joint compound
- you may need some other combination of fittings to attach to your filter or thermometer
- Liquid plastic or boat varnish (use the same stuff you used on the sink)
Construction
- Cut a section of 1x4 lumber to hold the faucet
- Drill holes for the input pipes
- Cut a section of 1x4 lumber into a right triangle to support the faucet
- Screw the faucet shelf to the triangle support
- Cut the backboard to size
- Coat the backboard and the faucet shelf in liquid plastic or boat varnish
- Lay out all the plumbing pipes in the arrangement you want
- Connect the pieces, being sure to use pipe compound or plumbers tape at all joints (I had trouble when connecting steel pipe to brass T's, and had to use pipe compound to stop the leaking)
- Attach the hoses to all but the faucet
- When the board and shelf are dry, screw the shelf to the board
- Put the faucet on the shelf and attach the nuts underneath to hold it on
- Attach the hoses to the faucet
- Test for leaks now, before you screw everything together. I made the mistake of attaching everything first, had leaks and had to undo everything, twice, before I started testing before attaching it all to the board.
- When you've got enough joint compound on the joints, and tightened everything well, use the pipe holders to screw everything to the board
- Screw the board to the wall
Use
Adjust the temperature slowly, start with cold water, otherwise the temperature could exceed your filters limit. Allow a minute or two for the water to run through the filter before you make another adjustment. When you use the faucet, you could change the temperature in your output spigots, so watch out for that. You can turn off the spigots for a while, turn them back on and know that the temperature will be CLOSE to what it was.Comments
From Jean-David Beyer, of Shrewsbury, New JerseyI see no vacuum breakers in your illustration or your parts list at this web page. You do want them, even if your plumbing code does not require them, so that solutions do not get syphoned from whatever is attached to your mixer (laundry) faucet or other output lines back into your water supply system. In my house this is extremely important, since my darkroom is upstairs and if someone flushes downstairs, the possibility of developing a vacuum in the system and syphoning from the washer stage of my Nova processor, my washing sink, or any hose from my mixer valve that may be in a tray of solution, into the water supply must not be overlooked.
