Tray processing... why not make the trays light tight?

[Andrew O'Neill]

...and

3) Tubes.

[Allen in Montreal]

The photographers of The Canadian Press invented something very much like this in the 80s.

It was for printing color prints on the road to be sent on the wire in the days before the Leafax came along. It was called the Color Canoe and had two trays with light tight lids and basin surrounding them held at 100 degrees by a Devtek heating element.

It was a big hit....until the Leafax came along and made color prints and the three color separation transmitters redundant!

This would fall under both the and categories.
Life is quicker and cleaner now,
but the camaraderie amongst wire service and newspaper photographers of the darkroom days has been lost....... for ever!!

In nearly all of the articles I read on tray processing, most people list one of the limitations as having to work in the dark. So why don't put just make the tray light tight? Though I still do not have my camera yet (waiting on the Chamonix), I'm trying to get my darkroom (read: bathroom) setup so I can get my feet wet right away.

I was thinking about buying 2 8x10 trays and a larger tray to place them in to have some control over temperatures. I haven't seen any covers or lids for trays, so maybe I'll have to think outside the box and look at kitchenware. Anyways, I was thinking about painting the outsides black and putting a thin layer of rubber coating (or something similar) around the edges of the container and then placing the lid on top. I believe this should create a light tight seal, but what do I know?

Has anyone tried this? Is it feasible?

And before someone even asks, no, I am not afraid of the dark .

Thanks,

Jason

(BTW, I'm working with b/w film only. I also do not plan on using the stacking method with the trays. Single sheet per tray.)