Beseler 23c B&W Enlarging w/Diffuser

After spending too much money getting my negatives developed by someone else, I decided to raid my dad's garage for his old darkroom equipment. I found two boxes that contained most of the the parts for the Beseler 23c II and processing color prints. There must be another box or two missing because I didn't find the Color Head, the Condenser lens assembly, the medium format lens and lens board, or any negative development tanks, hopefully they made it through the 20yrs and two moves.

Can I make B&W prints using the normal bulb and the diffuser, with just longer exposure times? Or should I buy the condenser assembly?

Welcome to Photrio.
I'm afraid you will need either the condensers or another light source. The main role of the condensers is to provide even light at the negative stage. A simple bulb won't do that alone.
The colour head might work without the condensers - I'll let the Beseler owners here chime in on that.

The diffuser assembly should work, in fact some people go to extra trouble to convert the condenser lens arrangement to diffuser. You could certainly try it with just the diffuser and if you don’t like it, you will be out a sheet of paper... When you turn on the enlarger with a negative in it, lighting should be even from edge to edge. This is the important part of lenses, light sources etc.


Also, I have seen the complete condenser lens assembly on eBay for what seemed to be a reasonable price.

Zlaser, I have an extra 23C sitting in my garage that I got for basically free. The bellows are more duct tape than bellows. I've kept it for parts for my other two. If you need condensers, let me know. You can have them for the cost of shipping. Just passing it along (the other two I've paid a princely sum of $25 for. The parts unit came with a darkroom lot that I bought for $40. I bought it primarily for the paper safe and grain focuser.

When I turn on the enlarger with a negative(35mm) in it the light seems even across the negative, but if I stop the lens down from f4 the image becomes quite hard to see. I still have to order paper and chemicals and get some trays and graduated cylinders before I can experiment.

Tim, I'm going to try to find the missing box(es) next week, if I don't find them I'll take you up on that offer. I was looking at craigslist to see if I could find one for parts locally but I think its too soon to start collecting enlargers. ha

You might be okay in a pinch printing from a 35mm negative.
While the light may be uneven, the fact that the 35mm negative is near the centre may mean that the unevenness isn't pronounced enough to matter so much. If you were printing a negative closer to the maximum size allowed by the enlarger - 6cm x 9cm - the problem would be much more pronounced.
There may be problems with flare and lowered contrast though - the condensers do contribute to the results.

Zlaser said:

When I turn on the enlarger with a negative(35mm) in it the light seems even across the negative, but if I stop the lens down from f4 the image becomes quite hard to see. I still have to order paper and chemicals and get some trays and graduated cylinders before I can experiment.

Tim, I'm going to try to find the missing box(es) next week, if I don't find them I'll take you up on that offer. I was looking at craigslist to see if I could find one for parts locally but I think its too soon to start collecting enlargers. ha

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Welcome to the club!
You'll receive plenty of excellent advice here!

When you close the lens down from f4 to a smaller number it will be harder to see. That's why we focus with the lens wide open. Then set the lens to the f/stop desired for the exposure.

Being in RI, I would think that there's a lot of used film gear available for cheap. Between RISD and some of the other Art Schools, I would think you'll do fine putting everything together.