Beseler 23CII White light switch

I am currently following an auction for a Beseler 23CII enlarger with Dual Dichro head on the well-known auction site. The seller describes it as being in good working condition except that the white light switch is not working and remarks "who uses that anyway." As I am unfamiliar with this type of head I can't evaluate if this is just a broken swithch or an indication of a more serious (and expensive to repair) problem. Also, I would expect that one would use the white light for focussing. Any guidance on this would be appreciated. By the way, I do not expect to print color, but might use the head for VC. The link to the auction is
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160074154182&ssPageName=ADME:L:DBS:US:11

My 23CII did not come with a power box as this one does, so everything else may be different too.
The 'White Lite' switch removes all the filters from the lamp path to the mixing box. If the switch is inoperative it means you cannot remove filtertation other than dialing the knobs to zero. No big deal in itself but it could have a bearing on the dialing in or out of filters. My white lite filter lever, while not broken is sloppy in removing all filtertation 100%.
The use of this switch is in focusing and composing, where you want as bright an image as you can get. Once composed and focused I do not use the switch. For split filter printing I cover the lens with a cardboard and dial in and out filtration with the lamp on. There is no other way I know of.

Bruce,
Thanks for the info. So the white light "switch" is more like a lever or a cam rather than an electrical switch?

CJBo001 said:

Bruce,
Thanks for the info. So the white light "switch" is more like a lever or a cam rather than an electrical switch?

Click to expand...

EXACTLY. Unless it's not. Then your CII may be different than my CII. I don't mean to confuse the issue but my CII has the three filter dials in a pyramid shape on the front, the one on Ebay looks different. Mine is probably an older model.

You might find better information at the Beseler site:
http://www.beselerphoto.com/

Good luck, it looks good to me and maybe like the guy says "Who uses that anyway?" I think you only use the filter retractor when focusing and composing. I like mine and I've had it for years. I only use it for 35mm and an Omega D5 XL for 4X5.

I've seen similar problems in other enlargers. Typically the filters are moved by levers & cams. When I've seen this the fix has been to open the head, relocate the cam & tighten the set screw that has loosened.

That has been my experience as well. If you are at all mechanicaly inclined it seems likely that you can fix this problem yourself.

- Randy

The white light switch is both mechanical and electrical. It moves the filters out of the way mechanically but it also make or break an electrical contact so that if the light is off it can not be turned on to prevent exposing the paper without the filter in place. But if the user is not familar with the unit he/she may mistake for it not working.