This seems to be the method of choice for developing 4x5 film at the university I go to, apparently invented by one of the professors there (I've never seen it mentioned anywhere else).

Take an 8x10 tray, preferably one with deep grooves in the bottom, and a piece of 3/4" PVC pipe. Cut four 1/2" wide "slices" off the pipe, so you have some rings. Glue the rings standing on edge -- so that the open sides are parallel with the tray bottom -- to the bottom of the tray on its centerlines, so they're in a cross-shaped pattern, like so:


Hot glue or epoxy is recommended.

Drop a sheet of film in each rectangular space, and process in total darkness using the "tray" times. The agitation takes a bit of practice -- lift at the corners, alternating between three corners. If you lift it along the sides you might get uneven development because of the rings.

When you're done with each step of the chemistry, gently hold down the film with one hand, and pick up the tray with the other to pour it out, then pour in the next thing.

And there you have it. Four sheets at a time in a tray, with no shuffling and subsequent scratching.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Baker on 2006-03-13 08:10 ]</font>

IMO, here's a lot better way to do this, using a processing panel. Plus, you don't sacrifice a tray and I believe the agitation is better.

http://philbard.com/panel.html

That's a neat set-up, but quite a bit more elaborate to construct. A suggestion: any good hardware store will sell self-tapping 6-32 (and other sizes) screws, which should chew right through plexiglass with no problem. I don't know offhand what the proper drill size is to make a hole that you can tap 6-32, but it shouldn't be hard to figure it out if you have a reasonably complete set of twist drills. Having tapped the holes, use the nylon screws and nuts as indicated.

I've been using this partitioned tray arrangement for several years now and like it; someone at a local camera store told me about it. I used sections of a plastic flourescent grid panel to separate the sheets; they have about a CM grid pattern and provide for free movement of the solutions. My dividers are full length and full tray height so I do not have problems with wandering sheets.

The processing panel looks like it may be worth a try as well, although it is more elaborate to make than gluing dividers in a tray.

What's mottling ?
I don't see the word in my dictionnary.

Then get a better dictionaly - or use Google.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/mottling

By all means get a dictionary, not a "dictionaly."

Thanks for the link.

Photographers Formulary sells commercial trays just like this designed to do exactly what your talking about, last time I was down there, they had inserts for 4 4x5 to be used in an 11x14 tray and 4 8x10s in a 20x24 tray, I have used the same method for a number of years now, starting out when I was in High School back in the 70's

Dave