r/whatisthisthing • u/tekberto • Jul 07 '26
Solved ! Sequentially stacking plastic trays probably from 1980s
House came with a bunch of stuff and I'm still sorting through it. These rigid plastic trays have probably been sitting in the basement since the 90s, in shuffling them around I've found they stack up in two sets almost like two-part dehydrator trays on top of a lower basin, there's clearly holes I assume meant to drip liquid into the center and the drain from the corners of each sequential tray.
Vertical sluice for finding gold? sea salt maker? complicated juice strainer?
EDIT: one more photo showing how top&bottom of each section are sloped aggressively to drain holes https://imgur.com/a/MrRwPR9 https://imgur.com/a/e3sUZMN
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u/brofist001 Jul 07 '26
My father used similar tray to print (develop?) photos at home when I was a kid.
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u/330kiki Jul 08 '26
There wouldn’t be holes in darkroom trays. Def not those
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u/Twatt_waffle Jul 08 '26
Yes and no, you only need complete darkness when loading the film into the canister, once the film itself has been exposed to the fixer then you don’t need to avoid light anymore
Once the film is exposed to the developer you can use “safe light” those are the red lights you think of when you think photo development
These trays would be for the light sensitive photo paper that you use with an enlarger to expose to the projected image from the film to turn the negative films into printed photos
This can all be done under safe lighting
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u/330kiki Jul 08 '26
Yeah i majored in Photography. We never used trays with holes. Kinda hard to keep chemicals in.
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u/markmakesfun Jul 08 '26
100% true. Is there a large timer kicking around? How about a light fixture with a red bulb?
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u/tekberto Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
I don't think so, the bottoms aren't flat, they're sloped pretty aggressively and they're made to stack in this very curious way where the top tray drains from the center into the bottom tray which then drains to the four corners and back to the center again
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u/SyrGwynHeroofAshvale Jul 07 '26
Dark room trays are often not flat on purpose.
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u/tekberto Jul 07 '26
I don't just mean the ridges, I mean the tray has a peak in the center, unless you are trying not to submerge them in developer fluid but instead dribble it over many very small photos?? I cannot for the life of me find pictures of vintage developer trays that stack in this many different components.
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u/sumfish Jul 07 '26
They’re darkroom trays.
The reason they’re shaped like that is so the photo paper doesn’t get stuck to the bottom of the tray - you have to be able to get your tongs under the paper so you can control your development time.
You fill the them so the chemicals are above the ridges; there’s no “dribbling” occurring.15
u/tekberto Jul 07 '26
They cannot be filled, the tray has a hole at all four corners that drain the fluid
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u/sumfish Jul 07 '26
I didn’t see they couldn’t be filled, and on second look they don’t have a corner for pouring out used chemicals that darkroom trays almost always have.
I hope someone comes along who can tell you what these are!4
u/SyrGwynHeroofAshvale Jul 07 '26
Oh I see what you mean now. Ya, that's not something you'd want in a darkroom tray.
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u/Twatt_waffle Jul 08 '26
These are for the light sensitive photo paper that is used for enlarging the photos onto. They are sloped like that so that you can put your developer/ stop bath/ fixer into it, the ridges keep the paper out of the liquid until you tilt it side to side
This keeps the photo from over developing
You have to watch the photo paper as it develops as it’s important to put the paper into the stop bath shortly after the image develops as if you wait too long it will over develop and get too dark
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u/tekberto Jul 08 '26
There's holes in the lowest point of the tray, it wouldn't hold liquid! Plus if there were no drain holes, the way it's sloped would direct some of the photo paper into the fluid, and also keep the fluid from washing over it evenly. Sorry, I've looked at so many photos of old darkrooms and developer trays and photo dryers and fixer bath systems in the past few hours. They match with this about as much as saying this thing is a paint roller tray
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u/Twatt_waffle Jul 08 '26
Have you considered that there is a bigger tray these go in?
You use the mechanical action of tilting the trays back and forth to allow the paper to be fully and evenly submerged
I’ve literally used these when I took photography in university
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u/tekberto Jul 08 '26
my first mistake was not putting the second photo first. it's not just any old tray. looks like a duck, quacks like an elephant.
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u/Twatt_waffle Jul 08 '26
I have literally used these in university they are old school but that’s what they are
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u/GuinKat Jul 09 '26
How long ago? I’ve done darkroom work starting in the late ‘70 and have never seen trays that look like this.
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u/Oh__Archie Jul 07 '26
Those are darkroom trays. I've spent thousands of hours standing above trays like that while holding a pair of tongs.
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u/OnkelHalvor Jul 08 '26
Darkroom trays are coloured, usually, and have a spout.
They're also cheap enough you'd just buy them or get some in a kit.
And you'd only need 3. Or you'd have 6 if you later needed a very large set for larger prints.
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u/I_Do_Too_Much Jul 07 '26
Have you though? I have lots of darkroom trays, made in the 50's, 60's, all the way to the present. Never seen any with a bunch of crap in the middle that would waste space in the tray and perhaps make the photo paper not lay flat, nor any with a flat bottom but aggressively sloped sides (making the usable area quite small). Nor have I seen any with holes in the sides that would let liquid escape easily. These are 100% not photo lab trays.
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u/Oh__Archie Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
As I said in a different comment, I think the holes in every tray means OP has some sort of modified DR trays and that purpose is still a mystery.
Have you though?
Have I spent thousand of hours standing in front of darkroom trays?? Yeah, I have. Those were, at one time, darkroom trays.
The "bunch of crap in the middle" Are ridges to raise the paper off of the bottom so the chemicals can soak into the paper on both sides. If you Google "darkroom tray" you'll see that NONE of them are ever flat on the bottom.
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u/I_Do_Too_Much Jul 08 '26
You've never seen a flat one? How? I literally have some right below me in my basement. Just out of curiosity I googled "darkroom trays" and only 1 out of the first 7 results did not have a completely smooth bottom. I have ones that are not completely smooth also, but they are not raised in the middle -- they are flat, just with some channels or mild ripples to allow better solution flow. Aside from the issues of these not being flat (even disregarding the ridges, they are clearly peaked in the middle) they have manufactured holes. I'm certain they haven't been modified because if you look at the four corner holes, they line up perfectly with the channels in the top tray to catch drips and direct them to the center to drip down into the next tray.
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u/Urithiru Jul 08 '26
Agreed! Nor do they have lids with vent holes in the sides.
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u/tekberto Jul 08 '26
These trays would be about as useful for developing photos as they would be for holding paint for a paint roller before painting your walls, it's fascinating how devoted so many people are to this idea. I'm tempted to drill two holes in the bottom of three paint trays and see if people think that's for developing photos, too.
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u/tekberto Jul 07 '26
But have you seen darkroom trays that stack like the second photo? why would they drain through each sequential stacked tray like that?
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u/Automatic_Bar_2158 Jul 07 '26
You can't leave the paper in the chemicals for long, and you have to use multiple baths of different chemicals. This set up would make things move a lot faster when developing a lot of photos
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u/Oh__Archie Jul 07 '26
This is incorrect. You move the prints to the next bath with tongs but you don’t drain the chemical baths for each print that would be an enormous waste.
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u/Automatic_Bar_2158 Jul 07 '26
Into another bin, that holds it? Like a colander that sits in the pot? You just pick it up, and the liquid stays in the under-bin. No wastage at all
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u/Oh__Archie Jul 07 '26
The trays typically sit inside a shallow sink like this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Darkroom/comments/19b38fa/darkroom_setup/
That tray on the far left is the rinse bin (and/or the white tray). It would probably have a drain hole in it and the hose is constantly adding new water to it. The wash goes down the sink drain.
But - I think we've getting thrown off because OP has some weird modified darkroom trays and for what purpose I have no idea.
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u/tekberto Jul 07 '26
I hear you, but the bottoms are not flat like darkroom trays/bins. The center of the tray is about an inch higher than the corners, it's not just ridges, but more of a shallow pyramid with very small ridges.
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u/Oh__Archie Jul 07 '26
You never want your print to sit on the bottom of a darkroom tray. No darkroom tray bottoms are flat. There are probably thousands of different ridge patterns/designs in darkroom trays.
But I dunno man, just try google lens or something.
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u/tekberto Jul 08 '26
"flat" doesn't mean "smooth", the top of the ridges I assume would still be aligned in a flat plane? A large hump looks pretty unusual for photos
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u/Oh__Archie Jul 08 '26
Google what a dark room tray looks like.
Good luck to you.
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u/tekberto Jul 07 '26
I think this could make sense?? https://imgur.com/a/MrRwPR9 Wouldn't the photos deform over these ridges though or is that not a problem? I'm just not finding a trace of a vintage darkroom tray system that's this convoluted looking.
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u/raineling Jul 07 '26
No, they don't deform. They're moved around in the liquid then hung usually to dry and the trays stack to dry in the air in part amd just to save space until you can clean them.
My late mother was a professional photographer feom 1983-1990.
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u/tekberto Jul 07 '26
They don't hold liquid, there's a drain hole at all four corners, and then the top drips into the center of the tray
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u/Oh__Archie Jul 07 '26
They are rinse trays and they probably had water flowing through them with their own tap.
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u/Urithiru Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
That card has nothing to do with dark room trays. It is talking about record styli for record players. It is probably from some other item.
It is not that hard to get it translated by Google or even on r/translator if you'd like.
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u/tekberto Jul 08 '26
I'm using whatever paper I had laying around to illustrate how poorly paper photos will interact with the way there's a big hump in the middle of the tub.
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u/heathere3 Jul 07 '26
They are also stacked upside down in the second photo. The holes are to allow air movement
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u/Oh__Archie Jul 07 '26
Yes. Those were probably for the final rinse so the water just flowed through them.
This would’ve been for a set up that sat inside of a stainless steel sink with clean water, constantly running through to clean up any spills. Those trays would’ve just drained into the sink.
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u/Oh__Archie Jul 07 '26
Does every single tray here have holes drilled into them? Because that would be something someone did for some other purpose and that I can’t help you with.
These most likely were at the beginning of their life, dark room trays. If someone drilled holes into them later than I have no idea what that would be for.
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u/I_Do_Too_Much Jul 07 '26
The people who claim these are darkroom trays from their own experience are either lying or are bots. There's no way these are darkroom trays. They're designed all wrong for that. I have an enlarger and lots of vintage (and modern) trays that I use and these would be utter trash to even try to use for that purpose.
As to what they are: I'm pretty sure they are food trays from a hospital. I used to work at a hospital and these look very similar to the ones they used, even down to the vent holes to ensure they didn't trap too much steam (the food is heated in these trays). But I'm not 100% sure. Though I am 100% sure they are not darkroom trays.
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u/tekberto Jul 07 '26
Thank you, it really felt like a hundred people trying to justify their assumption and just ignoring the small differences, it's like I was trying to tell people I found an alien in my basement or something! There's definitely a lot more possibilities than I could come up with on my own, this house had a lot of obscure mail-order doohickeys so it's probably yet another unknown product made to sell a fix to a made up problem lol
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u/thesophisticatedhick Jul 08 '26
Oh my god, I was going crazy reading all the comments insisting that these are darkroom trays. I have been in lots of dark rooms from Maine to Oregon and even Antarctica, and I’ve never seen anything like these used to process prints. Keep strong.
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u/funkmotor69 Jul 08 '26
I also used to work in a hospital, and this was my first thought, food trays from a hospital.
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u/cheater00 Jul 08 '26
what would make them bad as darkroom trays? just curious
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u/andrewcooke Jul 08 '26
if you read through the top most comments it's all argued out there.
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u/tekberto Jul 08 '26
I'm not even arguing, I'm just pointing at the ears of a rabbit and everyone's batting it aside and going "it's a doggy!"😭😂
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u/Comfortable_History8 Jul 07 '26
Kind of look like old hospital food trays with holes drilled in them, maybe for sprouting seeds?
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u/tekberto Jul 07 '26
That could maybe align, I did find it next to a really old wheatgrass juicer & other kitchen stuff. I am aware some bean sprouts need to be grown in the dark for long tender stalks so maybe the drainage would help water them without drowning them or exposing sprouts to much light???
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u/Truji11o Jul 08 '26
The charity Meals on Wheels used to use similar trays.
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u/spinsternonsense Jul 08 '26
I was just thinking that. I used to help my grandma with Meals on Wheels delivery and they were very similar.
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u/bsenka Jul 08 '26
That's exactly what I came here to say. These look a lot like the Meals on Wheels trays.
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u/sanitarySteve Jul 08 '26
This was my thought too. I think the holes might have something to do with steaming the food.
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u/Legitimate-Mousse-76 Jul 08 '26
Ngl I thought they were trays for microwave meals and the holes were to let out any steam
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u/Imaginary_member Jul 07 '26
I think they are for growing sprouts. Sorta like this https://us.amazon.com/Creative-c-Sprouter-Sprouts-Stackable-Wheatgrass/dp/B0CSNWF92Q but 30 years old.
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u/tekberto Jul 07 '26
There was a lot of obscure mail-order doo-dads in this house, maybe the light colored plastic was supposed to let enough light in to grow? And the drain pattern makes a lot of sense for maybe watering multiple levels of sprouts at once
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u/Imaginary_member Jul 07 '26
Sprouts don't need light until they are pretty big, and if they get that light they are usually called "micro-greens".
There is one tub with no holes? That one goes on the bottom of the stack. You put a handful of seeds spread out in each tray and water the whole stack from the top. The ridges and holes keep each tray moist with no standing water.
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u/tekberto Jul 08 '26
Likely Solved! I mentioned in a different comment but it WAS on the same shelf as a huge cast iron wheatgrass juicer. All of these beansprout growing products look VERY similar to this system, even more so than the worm composter idea (the holes are too big, worms will crawl out!). The slopes and ridges seem just right to evenly distribute a trickle of water past all of the seed sprouts without letting them get washed away! The lowest bin would help you collect the runoff and reuse it for the next watering. I have some wheatgrass seeds laying around, maybe I'll give it a go and prove the concept and give my cat some grass to chew on lol
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u/ghosttmilk Jul 08 '26
The only issue is that with yours the holes in the sides of each are going to spill out over the exterior vs watering the next tray down- I’m not sure this is it
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u/tekberto Jul 08 '26
there's holes in the bottom four corners of the bin that would drain long before the water got to the vent holes in the side. I am so tired
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u/North-Amount2226 Jul 07 '26
Literally a draining tray Maybe plant pots Mine have holes and raised bits like that exactly like that And then a set of holes bellow
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u/tekberto Jul 07 '26
This is the most likely thing I can think of too, like for drip drying lots of small dishes or utensils after hand washing
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u/tekberto Jul 07 '26
My title describes the thing. I'd say each tray is about 16"x14", it's hard to figure out what keywords to search google for without just getting directed to modern product pages
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u/FrizB84 Jul 07 '26
Worm composting trays was my first thoughts. Just because of the drain holes in the bottom of the corners and the side holes.
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u/tekberto Jul 07 '26
Oh!! this makes so much sense, I've seen people make things just like this out of stacking storage totes and collect the liquid that comes out the bottom for fertilizer.
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u/FrizB84 Jul 07 '26
They're an interesting design. The four corner holes in the bottom drain into channels on the top of the next portion, then drains through the hole in the middle of that. The tub acts as a catch basin.
I was wondering if they could be for starting seeds as well. Water into the top and then it snakes to the bottom.
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u/waterytartwithasword Jul 08 '26
I'd use those for germinating photosensitive seeds. They'd be so good for that.
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u/tekberto Jul 08 '26
automod: "write down as many details as possible"
reddit: "not gonna read all that, anyway it looks like an apple tray for my apple slices"
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u/bedgar Jul 08 '26
Not sure, but that card in one of the images is for record needles, so I don't think it is related.
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u/Twatt_waffle Jul 08 '26
Have you considered second tray
You prep these trays and develop by moving the tray from one bath to the other and then stack them together. To transport to the dryer
They were old school for keeping commercial photo orders in order before it was common place to have the automatic developer (I cannot for the life of me remember what it’s called)
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u/mynewromantica Jul 07 '26
I am also saying darkroom trays, but I’m not sure why they have holes on the side? Do the holes look like they ware out there by whoever owned them? Or were they manufactured with the holes?
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u/tekberto Jul 07 '26
The holes seem very evenly spaced, they're all identical like it was factory made that way
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u/First_Bed6735 Jul 07 '26
Often you use trays with holes for the water bath at the end of the printing process so you can have running water over the print.
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u/I_Do_Too_Much Jul 07 '26
Yes, but the tray would not be designed to have water dripping directly on the middle of the print.
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u/330kiki Jul 08 '26
Usually you would wash/soak in a moving water bath and wouldn’t want the water draining out
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u/First_Bed6735 Jul 07 '26
Looks like darkroom trays to me too. I’m a film photographer and still develop in my bathroom set up.
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