Beseler 45 MX II to 45 MXT conversion kit?

I have read that Beseler once offered a conversion kit to turn a 45 MX II to a 45 MXT. Does anyone know if this kit is still offered?

From what I understand, it basically replaced the tapered bellows and small lens board stage with the square bellows and larger lens board frame; This allowed you to install the 3 lens turret of the MXT on the MX II.

Anyone done this recently?

Of course, it would probably be much less expensive to just purchase extra lens boards... hmmm???

I don't know about the conversion kit, but I did buy the bellows stage from a newer Beseler 45MXT on eBay and installed it on an ancient Beseler 45M. It simply replaced the aging tapered bellows that were there, no modifications needed at all, just disassemble/reassemble with the new parts.

FWIW, though, I prefer the tapered bellows stage on my older blue Beseler 45MCRX because the lens stage can be tilted to do a bit of perspective correction when needed. The larger bellows on the MXT can't. Plus, it takes about five seconds to change lenses with the spring-mounted lensboard. The turret would really only be handy if one were mass-printing lots of prints from a different size negative each time. I don't use my turret at all; it lives in the cupboard.

Best,

Doremus

Very good points, Doremus.

Thank you.

The turrets take some getting used to. I followed the lead of a longtime printer, she put little labels on the barrels of the lenses. Watch Ebay, I accumulated 7 or 8 Beseler 4x5 enlargers during the great purge. Since equipped a couple fellows. The original system of switching out lenses on mounted boards is really pretty sweet.

The curved metal mount for the turret inside the focus bellows can get in the way of using large rear element lenses on plain lens boards. My 240mm EL-Nikkor is mounted on the face of a lens panel to get around it. I didn't want to do surgery on the enlarger in case I ever wanted to use a turret. Most people won't need to hang a lens that big - it is part of my 8x10 setup.

I like lenses on individual boards because I can switch them between my two enlargers.