Beseler 45 MCXAG enlarger

[jpreston]

I just bought a Beseler 45 MCXAG enlarger with the Agfa color head and Beseler black and white head. The unit needs a good cleaning. Any suggestions of what I can/cannot and should/should not take apart and clean? Don't really plan on using the color head at all. What should I use as the cleaning agent?

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[fotch]

I would start with a camel hair brush, and a very low powered vac, maybe a battery powered vac.

 

[wiltw]

A 'cleanser' known as Bar Keeper's Friend does a nice job on removing rust on metal and/or chrome items which can be subjected to water. Otherwise there are different brands of paste metal polish that can be applied with a cloth and polished with a soft cloth, found sometimes in houseware section of hardware or even grocery stores.

 

[jpreston]

Thanks. What about the condenser glass? Is Windex OK?

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Threads merged. There is no need to post the same thread in more than one forum. Everyone will see both threads in the "New Posts" view unless they've specifically excluded one of the forums, which is relatively unusual except for the off-topic forums and classifieds.

 

[jpreston]

Sorry for the duplicate.

Another question: The roller guides tend to slide out of the uprights when I raise the enlarger. Is there any way to fix this?

Thanks.

 

[jpreston]

Anyone?

 

[KennyMark]

Hi JPreston,
I just took a look at mine. While there is some flexion in the chassis, I'm not seeing enough to experience the same thing that you are. What I would look at in the following order are:

1) width of the chassis frame at bottom and top, expecting it to be consistent. If it isn't, I'd expect the only place it could be wrong would be the bottom, but that doesn't make sense if it's coming out of track when you raise it. I'd eliminate it as a possibility anyway.

2) Check to see if each of the tube receivers are tight. If they're loose, the receiver assembly could be sliding inward as you raise it.

3) If they're tight, they could still need to be loosened, spread out a bit, and re-tightened.

2 and or 3 are what my money is on. If someone disassembled it at some point, and didn't put it all back together properly, that's a reasonable explanation.

Eager to hear if you can solve it.

Kenny

 

[jpreston]

Thanks, I'll look at those possibilities.

 

[jpreston]

So, I think the enlarger frame must have been taken apart at one point and put back together incorrectly. The drive gears were misaligned in the rail. I loosened the right side rail and made sure the drive gears were engaged with the correct teeth on each rail and all looks good now. The tube receivers were a little loose as well so I pulled them apart and tightened the screws.

Another question: I took the condenser and lamp house off of the enlarger while I was doing this and accidentally dropped the condenser a little hard on the floor. It only fell a few inches, but about a 3/4 inch chunk of glass chipped off of the edge of the larger bottom condenser. I plugged it in and looked at the image circle. I can see the spot on the edge but it doesn't look like it will encroach on the projected image. Should I be looking for another one or should it be ok?

Jeff

 

[KennyMark]

Any negative carrier should mask that defect. To test, I would make prints without negatives exposed to make a middle gray, and another to make a very light gray. Do this without a negative carrier as a control. If nothing shows up in the prints, I'd say you're ok. If you see anything, then run the same test with the negative carrier for the largest format that you have on hand. That should give you enough to go on to make your decision about replacement.
Good luck.

 

[jpreston]

Thanks for the info KennyMark. I'll give that a try. I think it'll be OK, but it would be my luck that I fixed one issue and caused another, lol! I'll be printing mostly 6x4.5, 6x7, 6x9 and 4x5.