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Buying new trays

miha

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Feb 15, 2007
Messages
3,124
Location
Slovenia
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I need new 16'x20' trays and the good ones (Cesco, Deville) are over 50 USD/EUR apiece. It seems too expensive for a simple plastic product or am I missing something obvious?
 
Ridiculous, ain't it? But then 3.50 a gallon gas for the last 8 years is an outrage.
 
Why not just get the Arista ones? $70 for the set of 4...
 
Cause I want the good ones.
 
miha said:
I need new 16'x20' trays and the good ones (Cesco, Deville) are over 50 USD/EUR apiece. It seems too expensive for a simple plastic product or am I missing something obvious?
Click to expand...


Yes

Post a wanted advert here You'll get trays for far less. Sales are low so production costs are higher.

I may, well almost certainly, have far too many, trays around that size but every things in storage until I move house in a few weeks.

Ian
 
miha said:
...or am I missing something obvious?
Click to expand...

Probably that new formal darkroom processing trays today have a vanishingly small demand. Especially when any plastic container of sufficient size can be substituted. Lots of darkroom "equipment" may be found in the kitchen these days.

Ken
 

Hi Ian, I appreciate your offer but I want them brand spanking new - after 20 years.
 
Try a garden centre.
 
miha said:
Cause I want the good ones.
Click to expand...

The set of Arista ones I got were better than my old Pattersons... but those aren't really high end, either! I don't really see much difference in usage between them all, and personally I wouldn't spend the $50 a tray on the nicest ones when the Patterson and Arista ones do the same job...
 
cliveh said:
Try a garden centre.
Click to expand...

I will have a look or I can probably have them made from stainless steel for not much more money.
 
miha said:
Hi Ian, I appreciate your offer but I want them brand spanking new - after 20 years.
Click to expand...

I've not been printing long, only about 50 years. My experience though is the cheaper trays last as long as the more expensive ones that tend to crack. So don't equate price etc as meaning you'll get longer lasting trays.

Ian
 
If you feel you have to buy new Miha, Matt at Agphotographic will sell you 3 x 16 x20 Paterson trays at about 50 USD

Paterson trays have a very good reputation. I don't use trays but most of the ones, usually Paterson or Paterson type that I see on e-bay look OK and are much cheaper when secondhand. As long as they are not cracked there isn't a lot to go wrong with them, is there?

However it is your money. Stainless steel ones tailor-made for prints will last a lifetime but are a lot of money.

pentaxuser
 
You know, I've been thinking about this, and I wonder if something from the cooking section of a store wouldn't work....like a large baking pan. Just leave a pair of tongs on the bottom so you get get your fingers under it to get the print up and out. Or, as was stated, something from a garden center. I bought some large trays from Freestyle (made out of plastic) and they are junk. Way too thin and easy to break just carrying them w/ chemicals inside.
 
Paterson and Kaiser trays are made of softer material which bends when the trays are full and I carry them around or stack them. I purchased my present trays 20 years ago in Munich, they have thick walls and very good rigidity. Unfortunately they are all stained by now, have been use for selenium toning, etc, hence I don't want them second-hand.
 

Maybe they're changed suppliers, but the ones I got last month are very sturdy. I accidentally dropped one wuth 1.5 liters of stop bath in it... no cracks, breaking, anything of the sort. They don't flex while pouring.

I just had an idea for you, though--

Go to a restaurant supply shop and look through the serving section. I bet the stainless steel trays used on steam tables at buffets would work perfectly for you!

EDIT: Oops, forgot about sizing. A full size steam table pan is 12.75 x 20.75. They are only about $15 each, though.
 
Arista trays look like Paterson.
 
I made a washer out of the big leak-tray that sometimes goes under a clothes-washing machine. The thing is huge (more than 65cm) but wouldn't be any good for developing as it is only polythene and is not rigid. The best 16x20" trays I have ever seen are some Polish ones, made of fibreglass and totally rigid, even when full (but they are heavy and probably never got further than Europe).

As a workaround for slightly-floppy-trays, you can put them on a piece of plywood (varnished for ease of cleaning perhaps) with a handle or bit of strong string and then tilt the entire sheet of wood for agitation - assuming you chose a sensible thickness of ply, this stops any excess flexibility being a problem.
 
Does anyone still make the enamel trays?
 
You want really good quality trays, brand new, and don't want to pay a lot. Sounds like every buyer of anything for sale.
 
My approach was to skip new plastic trays for those high prices. Instead I looked to The Auction Site for used stainless steel. For the same $40-$50 USD each you can find very nice matched sets there. I paid $200 USD for a matched set of five 11x14s.

This set was once used by the US Navy. They're in beautiful condition. And after cleaning them up with phosphoric acid, they shined like new as well. They probably served with distinction in the USN for a couple of decades. Now they're doing the same job for me, hopefully for several decades more. Then they will go on to someone else to serve again equally as well. And still looking like new.

What's not to like?



Ken
 
Several years ago, I bought an entire darkroom from a retiring photojournalist. I mostly got it for the Jobo Processor that he had, but I got everything. Included was a set of 5 30"x40" homemade trays. They were made from 1/8" plywood, with the sides taped on to the bottoms, and then covered with a layer of fiberglass both inside and out. They were very solid - in fact, for a while I used one of them as a sink in a temporary darkroom since you can fit many 8x10 trays in one of these!
 
I'm sure if you went to chief central, you'd find a baking pan that would serve you very nicely.

It is rediculous these plastc trays cost so much. Cant find the hard rubber never mind afford stainless trays.

But as others sugested, keep an eye on the classifieds, used trays are probably better quality older issue.
 
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