Darkroom maintenance

[JonFineArtisan]

Hi all,

Just joined this forum and would like to dip into your wealth of knowledge. I have just taken on the rolel of managing four darkrooms and would appreciate some advice.

1) What is the best way of colour coding trays, so that each is clearly marked to Dev, Stop, Fix and Wash? We've tried permanent markers and these are worn off too easily, are their any paints that I can use that won't contaminate the chemicals? Or is there another way that I could do this?

2) What is the best way of cleaning the trays? Most are dirty and are in need of a spring clean, normal household bleach has been suggested, but will this be OK and not leave any trace that again might contaminate the chemicals?

3) We have a couple of Translyte fibre dryers (I think), does anybody know of a place where I can pick up a couple of new canvas covers? (I'm UK based, London to be exact)

4) And the extractor fans need a clean/service/replacing, does anybody know of someone in the london area who could do this, yet keep the darkroom room blacked out. Will any electrician do or is there a specialist I could use?

5) We have a resin-coated heated dryer and the metal racks have lost their coating with the result that some prints pick up rust marks, is there any way that I can recoat these racks with something, or is there some company that does this? I think it might be some sort of plastic, but it has long since worn off, and I don't want to buy a new dryer just to get some new metal racks.

I think there was something else, but I can't remember for the moment.

Thanking you all in advance to any advice and tips that you can push my way.

Cheers

jon

 

[Mike Wilde]

tray organization thoughts

It is low tech, but I use Dymo labels on the top of the back of the tray. I do not clean the dev tray - no big deal if there is silver on the bottom to me. I wash my stop, fix, and toner trays (paterson palstic) from time to time on their own in the kitchen dishwasher, on a no heat dry cycle. You can also write on the bottom with sharpies - I stand mine on end in the lsots between the duck boards in the bottom of my sink to dry. Usually it only matters to me when I lay the trays out when they are still empty. Once the solutions are in the trays, I stick on 1/2 masking tape with sharpie used to note the dev, and fix types, as well as toners. I do this because there are times that I drop saran wrap over the trays and leave the darkroom for a day or two. It can be a challenge to remenber - is it dektol, or warmtone, is it rapid fix, traditional fix, no hardener fix 1, fix 2, etc.

Shut of the mains power for the ventilator, and take it apart yourself, if you are in a fix - if it is screwed now, then you likely cant make it worse. A lot of the time the problem is accumulated lint. Clean your batheroom vent fan first to see what horrors link before attacking the darkroom vent.

 

[Mike Wilde]

rust marks - appliance repair store for repair coater

There is a small bottle of 'stuff' that I have sued to re-coat dishwasher racks that have had the plastic chipped off them. Use in a well ventialted area - the solvent is of the strong organic variety, my nose can recall the smell of it still many years after patching up my moms old dishwasher and save her hand washing the tea cups.

 

[jp80874]

Jon,

Color marking: Unless you are writing the word, Dev, Stop, Fix, you should consider that 1 in 3 males is partially color blind and 1 in 16 females. I am one of the color blind males, 85%, and I can make a mess of color coding. I am in Ohio so you don't need to worry about me, but a few of us came from your area. If you are writing the word it really doesn't matter what color you use as long as it stands out from any stains.

Drying: Many of us make racks from plastice window screens stacked in a frame. Wash them off every now and then in a big sink or, if they are quite large, take a stack of them to the car wash.

Congratulations on your new job. Good luck.

John Powers

 

[grahamp]

You should be able to get your dryer racks recoated. This is usually a powder that is applied to the bare metal, then baked on. You would have to confirm that any new coating was safe at the dryer temperature.

You could varnish over the written labels. Make sure the varnish is a) plastic safe, and b) survives washing.

If your users are sensible people, you can use gripping clothes pegs with text on them clipped to the tray side. If it is a school or college then that is too much temptation for some peoples' sense of humour.

 

[PhotoJim]

I wrote on my plastic trays years ago and the ink is staying. I wrote on the outside of the tray, so it isn't getting the chemical exposure all the time. I just used an indelible marker.

Let it dry thoroughly before using the tray and it should last.

Another option is colour-coded trays. Even to colour-blind people, the tones are different enough that identifying them should be easy once you show them once.

 

[Chazzy]

Another option is colour-coded trays. Even to colour-blind people, the tones are different enough that identifying them should be easy once you show them once.

Well, what is the most logical color-coding scheme? White for the developer tray, so that oxidation shows up? Red for stop bath since it is acid? Should fixer be tan or green? Unless I had a reason to remember why each color was used, I'm sure that I would quickly forget the scheme.

 

[glbeas]

For your dryer rack there is stuff called Tool Dip that will coat whatever you dip in it with a thick plastic coating. For the trays mark them deeply with an engraving pen or a woodburning pen/solder iron. After a while dirt will build up in the grooves and make them easily legible or you can wipe some paint into it. This is also easy to feel in the dark.

 

[Jim Jones]

Do not use bleach to clean trays. It can cause a nasty chemical reaction. The sharpie markings on trays in my personal darkroom have lasted for years. As long as trays are always used for the same chemicals, a rinse suffices to keep them functional, if not pristine.

 

[Jim Noel]

Vinyl letters in the tray last for years.

 

[grahamp]

Three colours = six permutations

I use red for developer, white for stop/fix/bleach/toning, and grey for stop. The rationale is that for basic developing the developer and fix are critical (stop is in the middle). I like the lighter (red) colour for developing as I can get a better feel for the density that way. I can also see the contamination build-up more easily.

That is assuming I have trays of those colours in the right size. Otherwise it is basic white. I always work left to right, and I always clean up the same way, in process order.

 

[JonFineArtisan]

Thanks for all the replies.

But I have a few follow up queries, would household bleach be OK to clean the trays? There are a lot of trays, enough for four separate darkrooms in sizes ranging from 10x8 to 20x26, and the permanent marker signifying Dev, Stop, Fix on each tray has worn off (both inside and outside the tray). The result is that users often use trays for different chemicals (possibly including selenium and other toners). And so I was planning to give all the trays a good clean and then relabel them. The club has nearly 400 users (from many different countries), so as well as writing Dev, Stop, Fix I want to colour code them to hopefully avoiding any confusion and contamination. Previously, different coloured trays had been used, but some have become cracked and the nearest shop only sells white trays now. Any labels need to be very durable as the trays get a lot of use and colouring the rim seemed like a neat way of showing which tray takes which chemical.

Regarding the drying racks, would an ironmongers have access to the plastic coating thingy?

Many thanks

PS, for the chap who congratulated me on this job, thank you but alas it is voluntary and so unpaid and I have no experience of managing darkrooms hence the basic questions. But on a high note, after a lapse about 18 months, darkroom usage is steadily increasing, and the club is seeing an increase in members (mostly younger people) who are joining specifically to use the darkrooms.

 

[grahamp]

A metal finishing company should offer powder coating. Many years ago my school's metal-shop had that capability. Whether you could get it done economically, I don't know. Maybe a good coat of Hammerite would be better.

 

[Jon Butler]

NEW CANVAS

Jon,
The canvas for the Translyte dryer you will be able to get from
RK Photographic of Potters Bar.
Regards JON B

 

[Brian Jeffery]

...would household bleach be OK to clean the trays? ...

Why don't you try Speedibrews SPEEDICLEANER from Silverprint. You'll find in listed in the chemicals section. They have a minimum order value of £25 so you'll either need to order something else along with it or pop along to the shop in SE1.


Brian

 

[David Brown]

Do not use bleach to clean trays. It can cause a nasty chemical reaction.

Can someone elaborate on this? thanks!

 

[Mike Té]

I prefer to use a white tray for the stop b/c I use an indicator stop bath. The colour change is therefore evident very early in the process of exhaustion of the stop.

 

[Gay Larson]

I started in a school darkroom and they used markers on the bottom of the plastic trays with letters only, D= developer, S=Stop, F=Fix. It worked quite well and I carried it into my own darkroom even though I don't need it anymore. I have not had a problem with the marker fading and you don't have to worry about colors being hard to distinguish in the darkroom safelight. I also used bleach on my trays to clean them which was suggested on this site and had no problems except it did significantly clean the trays which faded the markers so I had to use the permanent marker again. I don't know what the chemical reaction could be but I rinsed the trays very well after bleaching and dried them completely, had no problems. Hope this helps.

 

[fschifano]

I've been cleaning out my trays with some dilute household chlorine bleach for years. It stinks, so keep a window open. Put the trays in the sink, fill them with water, then add a few oz. of bleach and let them sit for an hour or so. Come back and rinse them clean, with maybe a little rubbing with a soft sponge. No problem.

 

[matti]

Maybe potassium ferricyanide would clean the dev-tray. I don't see a reason for it. My white developer tray is black on the inside . But my wife says some people like order and clean things.

/matti

 

[MattKing]

IMHO the only reason to be concerned about stained or discoloured trays, is that it is easier to see any dirt or sludge that ought to be removed in an unstained tray.

Matt