[Leica] Ten Tray Darkroom Layout

[Mark Rabiner <mark@rabiner.cncoffice.com>]

http://www.rabiner.cncoffice.com/pdfs/TenTrayDarkroomLayout.pdf

I have put much work into my Ten Tray Darkroom Layout chart. I made a pdf
acrobat document out of it. Printed it in color and hung it up in my darkroom
and here by my computer.
So if anyone is interested in my guides to darkroom happiness just click the above.

"I commonly mix up Paterson 11x14 trays which comfortably hold 3 liters of
liquid and are 15 inches on the narrow side. I typically make 11x14 fiber prints.
If I am making 8x10 RC contact sheets I use the same trays in the same layout
but omit the chemicals from the Toner and Clear; trays 7 and 8. Those two trays
then become water trays. So after the second Fix I have 5 water trays! It is
barely necessary to have the water running in your wash for this type of
arrangement! I’ll have it running at a trickle. These ten trays with a squeegee
glass take up 14 feet out of my 18 ft sink, a luxurious arrangement that many
will not be able to swing in their space unless they go with smaller trays. A
common work around and what I do when I print 16x20’s or 20x24’s is to do two
runs....come back for a “Laundry” run. 
Your first run is you go through your first or second fix.  Then you either let
your prints soak overnight or lay them out on your plastic dryer screens. Then
next morning you do the second half of your run: trays 6-10 I think it’s s ok to
let your fiber prints soak 8 hours. Others don’t. The paper’s s I use which are
Ilford Multigrade papers respond fine to this treatment. The sizing or whiteners
of others papers might leach out too much so squeegee and dry them.
RC prints should not be wet much longer than 15 minutes. Sometimes I’ll hang
them up with cloths pins instead of taking the trouble to squeegee and lay them
out on drier screens.

These Paterson trays I use come in colors; red white and beige. This explains
the colored type I used on this chart which as it hangs on my darkroom wall
provides a visual aid to me. The black type is for the white trays. For
different sized trays you’d have to do the math as to how much chemistry I use
per liter to convert to the amount of liters you have in your trays.

Please email for corrections or ideas.
Mark Rabiner
mark@rabiner.cncoffice.com