Bad Vibes

This weekend I discovered that the furnace in my old house, when running, creates a vibration , ever so slight, at my enlarger. The bathroom is in between the utility room and the darkroom. I was looking at some projected negatives and I happened to bend over and look through the 10x grain focuser without touching the focuser, my hands were behind my back.....why I did that, idk. I noticed the image in the focuser was vibrating.......and as I was looking at it, the furnace shut off and the image stopped vibrating. I never noticed this before, for whatever reason.......this revelation explains a lot!

That reminds me when I was living in Japan, an Ilford rep dropped off their Multigrade 500 head for me to try out. When I was looking through the grain focuser, I couldn't focus on it. The grain was vibrating from the cooling fans. I called the rep, and you'll never guess what he told me to do... stop the lens down! I told him to come and pick it up and promptly ordered an Aristo VCLH. My furnace is far enough from my darkroom, that it's not an issue.

I printed at the university after mid-night when the boiler shut down...

And I had to keep the systems that closed the darkroom doors adjusted so they would not slam them.

Edit -- I just looked up the name of the devices that automatically close doors without slamming them -- they are called door closers. Duh...

You just need an easel that vibrates in sync with your enlarger.

faberryman said:

You just need an easel that vibrates in sync with your enlarger.

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Exactly -- just tie the column to the wall so it only moves with the building and does not vibrate on its own.

A friend was using an 8x10 upstairs in an old building that vibrated and moved with the wind and truck traffic -- but his long exposures were are sharp. The camera moved with the building.

Time to order up some Sorbothane isolation pads: Isolate It: Sorbothane Vibration Isolation Circular Disc Pad 0.5" Thick 1.5" Dia. 50 Duro - 4 Pack

Choose the size and durometer based on the weight of the enlarger - 30 durometer being the softest. These are for 10-23 pounds per pad.

The vibration is obviously transferring from the hardwood floor to the 8 foot long dry side bench I built, then to the enlarger itself. I won't be mounting the column to the wall. Those pads look interesting.

Andrew O'Neill said:

. The grain was vibrating from the cooling fans. I called the rep, and you'll never guess what he told me to do... stop the lens down! I told him to come and pick it up and promptly ordered an Aristo VCLH.

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I wonder if he has moved on and is now promoting new film that is really old stock and probably is still sleeping well every night ?

pentaxuser