Topic: Space-Saving Darkroom Tips

[JoeV]

Many of us who work in home-based darkrooms have to make do with very cramped quarters. My personal darkroom is six-by-six foot square, and there's hardly enough counter space along one side to handle all the trays necessary for processing eight-by-ten inch prints.

Over the years I've experimented with various ways of saving space, and have found a handy method of using plastic, three-drawer storage bins as vertically stacked processing trays.

I made a video this morning that describes how I use these storage drawers as processing trays, have a look.

~Joe

http://youtu.be/LC0-NRU3oZ4

[Francois]

That's pretty ingenious. Just like a tray ladder but only cheaper.

Does it cut down a bit on the smell?

[JoeV]

It does cut down a bit on the odors. When I heat the chemicals up in the microwave on a cold day, then pour them into their trays, there's some condensation you can see under the upper tray, so I'm sure the configuration does capture some fumes that would otherwise escape.

~Joe

[Andrej K]

Neat idea. Do these things come in, say, 16x20 size? Cos' that's what would help me.. 

[FiatluX]

Clever solution, just what I need!

[Francois]

Neat idea. Do these things come in, say, 16x20 size? Cos' that's what would help me.. 

I've never seen them that big, but you can always make a custom "shelving unit" out of wood to put regular trays in.

I remember the old tray ladders used to put the front of the trays at an angle to each other so that you could grab the print from the top tray, pull it out and slip it in the second tray without moving anything.

[hoddy]

Brilliant idea! I'm trying to work out how I can fit a darkroom area into our narrowboat so this solves one of my problems.

In your video you mention a "Glovebox darkroom"?? for 5 x 7 prints. What have you done there?

Thanks again for the idea

[JoeV]

David;

There was a lengthy thread about this portable darkroom box project over on F295, here. Unfortunately, the attached pictures in the thread have since become lost after forum software upgrades, and so I'll have to make a video about the box in the near future.

The project started from my interest in portable camera/darkroom boxes used by street photographers in places like India and Afghanistan, used to make B/W portraits. But instead of building a camera into the side of a processing box, I wanted to have the box separate.

One thing my box lacks is a red viewing window in the top lid, which precludes me from developing by inspection. Perhaps in the future I'll get around to upgrading the design.

~Joe