Help with Darkroom sink dimensions

[Serge S]

Hello Home Darkroom users!
I need your guidance & advice!!

I'm having concerns about getting the dimensions right for my sink.
Is there a goldylocks size that just right for me?

My goal is to be able to fit 4 - 11 x 14 trays.
The outside tray dimensions are 13 x 16 1/2 (my Yankee trays)
(if I decide to do 16 x 20 down the road I will use tubes)

The longest sink I can fit would be 58" long in my space.
I plan to build it out of 3/4 " plywood & paint it with Duralex enamel paint top deck boat paint.

Not sure how wide to go as I have some flexibility here - how does 22 inches sound?
(the tray is 16 1/2)
I'm trying to calculate an allowance for the thickness of the plywood + room to maneuver/rocks the trays.

Not sure on the height?
Thinking around 40 -41" to the front lip / bottom of sink 34 3/4
Depth around 5-6 inches or maybe less (the trays are 3 inches deep)
To recap: 58 inches long x 22 wide(outside dimensions)
using 3/4 inch plywood.

Thanks in advance

Serge

[LabRat]

Before you get involved in a sink construction project, look up "Hydroponic flood tables" to price/size these low cost/high quality units as a replacement to darkroom sinks... They come in a variety of useful sizes, made to hold heavy wet loads, come with a good steel stand, different modules can be added, and MUCH cheaper than building materials...

A fellow photographer I know has to cut up an ancient old DIY sink now too big for his space and is researching these tables for his space, and is familiar with these...

Steve K

[Conrad . Marvin]

If you are tall then you might want to consider the height of the bottom of the sink. Make the dimensions as large as you can except if you are short and are going to be reaching to the back. Drainage doesn’t have to be anywhere near the plumbing standard as you aren’t going to be moving solid waste in a pipe. My sink had 1/4” drop in over 8’. Good luck on your project!

[Mark Sampson]

I looked at 'flood tables' a couple of years ago. They are quite feasible. I wound up buying an 8' ABS sink and stand from Delta; it fit in my space perfectly, and was the obvious answer. It will comfortably hold 4 11x14 trays and has worked very well. Luckily I had a budget then.

[Robert Bowring]

Just make it as big as you can. You can not have too much sink. My rule of thumb is to figure out how big a sink I need and then make it 1.5x bigger than that.

[Larry Gebhardt]

It's nice to have some room for bottles in the sink as well as the trays. Plus a washer tray and a print washer if you print on FB. My sink is 24" deep and it's fine for 11x14 trays with enough room behind for pouring the chemicals back after printing. 22 might be a bit tight if all the trays and washers take up the length.

[Ulophot]

Serge, I just wrote a reply, detailed my similar sink situation. For some reason, it was deleted when I pressed Submit. I can send you a photo if you're interested.

[Duolab123]

I would make it so it could accommodate a couple 16x20s, and still be able to hold 4 or 5 11x14s.

Sinks show up on Craigslist etc, not like they used to. It's good to have plenty of sink.

[Roger Thoms]

Well I would make your sink just under 58” to fit the width of your space and the make it fairly deep to compensate for the width limitations. I was the 30” or 32” deep. Just my 2 cents, worth maybe 1 cent on a good day. :) I does sound like you situation calls for a custom made sink.

Roger

[Tin Can]

I had 21' with 3 ARKAY sinks, then moved

More than I needed. Gave away one, sold the NEW 10' to a member

Kept my 7' X 25" Arkay as I can tear it down and move it myself

The keeper is insulated as was the 10'

I can fit 3 NOS 20X24" Arkay trays in it!

I have 2 cheap new laundry sinks screwed to floor and 3 have water traps

One holds my 20X24" paper washer, the 11X14" in the 7' and takes up little room

The standard laundry sink holds a Gas Burst system

Pictures on request

[Peter Lewin]

When I built my sink, I sized it to hold 4 11x14 trays PLUS my ZoneVI 11x14 washer. My trays are developer, stop bath, fixer, water (to rinse some fixer but primarily to allow me to judge the print) and then the washer for the prints I want to keep. The sink is deep enough to hold jugs of fixer, toner, plus smaller containers of partially used liquid developer and stop bath.

[Greg]

Built my first darkroom sink in 1970. Except for the first one they all have been 2 feet deep and 8 feet wide. Present one: front side is 6 inches high and the rear 12 inches high. Sides angled sloping up. Bottom of sink slopes down 1/8 inch per foot towards the drain. If to do over again, I would have had the bottom slope down a bit more, maybe 3/16 or 1/4 inch per foot. 3/4 inch exterior plywood (carpenter friend told me Marine plywood was a waste of money if I had enough coats of paint on it) with 3+ coats of heavy duty deck & patio porch paint. Extra coat of paint every summer... it only gets better. Color is 18% gray. There was a time when I printed up to 20x24 prints and I had plenty of room for the trays. Now only print up to 11x14 and have enough room to also have a JOBO processor reside on the side opposite the drain. Joints are initially caulked before screwing the sides to the bottom piece. Then the inside corners caulked again. Deck screws every 6 inches.
When I was a student at RIT in the mid 1970s, my Professor and all time Mentor Nile Root constructed his darkroom sink with enough of a front overhang to allow him to sit on a padded stool with wheels and process his prints sitting down. I seriously considered this and made a full sized mockup of this configuration, but I found out that I experienced a bit of back pain from leaning over the sink too much. I'd be interested if anyone else configured their darkroom sink to be used while sitting down and not standing up.

[Nigel Smith]

Present one: front side is 6 inches high and the rear 12 inches high. Sides angled sloping up.

Mine (made in some PVC sheet) is 4" deep with a 24" back-splash (I've Americanized that for the general readership... they are 'splashbacks' here! but I've watched too many U.S. home improvement shows). I use the splashback for print squeegeeing. If I was to make another sink, I would reduce the front edge to 1" or maybe less. In 20+ years using this sink, I've never spilt anything more than a few drops, and even with a 1" lip, it would hold a lot of fluid before overflowing.




When I was a student at RIT in the mid 1970s, my Professor and all time Mentor Nile Root constructed his darkroom sink with enough of a front overhang to allow him to sit on a padded stool with wheels and process his prints sitting down. I seriously considered this and made a full sized mockup of this configuration, but I found out that I experienced a bit of back pain from leaning over the sink too much. I'd be interested if anyone else configured their darkroom sink to be used while sitting down and not standing up.

I use a stool that I half sit on when agitating trays. Comes in handy when have long lith developments. Having a low front sink edge would facilitate this as then you're not reaching over the lip and down to rock the tray.

As for the overall size of the sink, if you don't have enough room for large trays, consider the 1 tray method. I do 20x24's using 1 tray and 4 buckets. It's not like they are a production line thing so for the few times I decide to 'go big' his works for me.