Cleaning Trays

brian steinberger

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Anyone have any good suggestions on cleaners that would work well to clean my darkroom trays and other surfaces in my darkroom? I've heard that Simply Green works well. I'd like something that I can buy at a local store, and also something that won't run me and my family out of the house...
 

Krzys

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If I dont have any specific cleaners around I just use vinegar on anywhere stained with developer and photoflo on all else
 

Steve Roberts

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Cleaning and drying trays is one of my pet hates!
Every few sessions I leave the dev tray full of a weak bleach mixture overnight before washing thoroughly.

Steve
 

Monophoto

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Cleaning darkroom trays is one of those things that tends to get put off until they get so bad that you can't even stand it in the dark.

I cleaned my trays a couple of weeks ago. I took them outside on the driveway, rinsed them off, and then used some "Softscrub" to remove the worst of the grime. After rinsing them, I filled them with a mild bleach solution and let them sit in the sun for a few minutes before giving them a final rinse.
 

pcyco

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hallo

i always wash them after the printing session only with warm water.
all 2 months i use some corgatabs (for cleaning your third teeth). this should wash away the stains from fixer. does not work well all the time.

my newest cleaningproblem is a gray veil ( i hope that voc. works) from my homemade dektol (d-72). there only helps scrub.
 

ricksplace

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I use bleach too, but I recently posted a thread about the use of the product "magic eraser". It cleans my white plastic Paterson trays just great.
 

yardkat

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I volunteer in a classroom darkroom. Our trays get pretty dirty pretty quickly, especially toward the end of the semester. At any rate, we generally use Softscrub and an abrasive sponge, but a jar of Pec Photofinish turned up one day, and that stuff is amazing. I don't recall that it smells, in fact I think it's probably less annoying than the lemon scent of the Softscrub, and it's really much more effective. Anyway, it's great stuff and it really works.
Dead Link Removed
 

John Koehrer

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brian,
It's Mr. Clean magic eraser. Houseware, detergent aisle at the grocery.
 

BetterSense

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Magic Eraser! They really are magic. As a bonus, they make a great stylus cleaner for your turntable.
 

eli griggs

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Has anyone here tried baking soda and table salt as a scrubbing paste?

Eli
 

clayne

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Clean my trays at the end of each session, tends to help quite a bit. Just a quick soap + rinse.
 

jp80874

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It may be a given since it hasn't been mentioned, but I mark my trays by what was in them first and always repeat the same chemicals and trays. Any residue will not contaminate the next time the tray is filled.

Last weekend I had a thread on getting rid of old fixer smells. Chazzy suggested 409. I washed stainless and plastic trays, painted wood table tops, stainless sink, old fixer storage gallon jugs for transporting to silver recovery and even a 2x6 foot rubber floor mat. Everything looked, and more important to my wife, smelled better.

John Powers
 

clayne

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Actually, about the tray order, I almost always use the following colors:

White: Developer.
Red: Stop-bath.
Tan: Fixer.
Green: Holding tray.
 

Peter Schrager

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tray cleaner

I use Dr. Bronners magic soap after each session....the tip about using the same trays for each chemical is the proper way to work...
Best, Peter
 

Sirius Glass

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clayne said:
Actually, about the tray order, I almost always use the following colors:

White: Developer.
Red: Stop-bath.
Tan: Fixer.
Green: Holding tray.
Click to expand...

Funny thing, I use the same convention.

Actually, it is because white works the best for comparing the images during development. Red because of "Stop" in stop bath. ... Green as in "good to go"

Steve
 
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