My Digest for Linen-Backing Posters: Part IV - The Washing/Rinsing Tray

As you may recall, I have no plumbing in my warehouse, so being able to wash, rinse and perform various other wet works for poster restoration needs to have some containment solutions.

I decided to build a wooden tray which was approximately 34.5"w x 50"l x 3.5"h inside. I wont go over the specific build in too much detail but will describe the characteristics of the design.

To start with, the size was specifically chosen so that I could wash/clean and rinse posters up to 27" x 41" (one-sheet movie posters). When doing this work, the posters will be sandwiched between mylar, so adding 4 or more inches to the interior dimension will allow good movement...then I just increased based on the lumber I had around.

Here are a couple of the design elements I will walk you through:

• Drain and plug

• Epoxy cover interior (to make watertight)

• Side moulding and support blocks to allow stable standing on its side for storage

• Drain trough around interior to divert liquid to the drain

General Build

There is nothing fundamentally complex about the general build. I used oak for the bulk of the build, but that was just what I had and I like the overall strength of oak. Once I cut the 4 main sides and glued and screwed them together, I cut a layer of the laminated hardboard to place on the bottom, laminated side up. This will get screwed onto the bottom of the oak frame. Then I took another piece of the laminated hardboard and cut about 2" smaller all around so that when I glue that piece on top of the larger piece, I would have a nice drain trough that wil guild water all around the edges to the corner.

Drain Placement

Then I put a drain and plug along one of the corners. This will eventually get all secured and water tight with the copious amount of epoxy I used during the build. This drain has a 2" coupler on the outside where I can attach a hose and drain into a 5-gallon bucket as needed.

You will see I also put some block on either side of the exterior drain coupler to protect it from damage during movement.

Side Moulding and Support Blocks

With some left over strips of oak, I put a moulding around the full outside edge to give it some extra stability, then put some blocks along the outer top edge. This allowed it to stand up vertically without tipping over. I also put some cross beams across the bottom to add rigidity to the laminated hardboard. Eventually I would add some rubber feet all around.

Epoxy Covering

The epoxy covering overall went pretty well...at least until i mixed a batch with 2 parts of the same part, and hence it never hardened. I had to scrape it out and then put another layer on top of it...so it looks a bit ugly...but, it does the job. I used an Upstart brand epoxy for 1/8" thick applications. The epoxy goes all over the bottom as well as the interior sides.

In Summary

I actually use this for many other uses where I need to have a water tight large container and it comes in handy for so many uses including general paper conservation/restoration. Sometimes during use, I need to have any liquid directed to the corner and to do this, I will just put some shims under one end to direct water accordingly.