Hello Everyone,
I'm restoring a 1950's Beseler 45m and looking for advice on parts, as well as to share some thoughts and photos from the project if anyone is interested.
I picked up the enlarger in a lot of three being sold on Facebook marketplace, one of the worst places to buy camera equipment. It with a 23c III XL and an Omega B-600 that were both mint, and the guy threw a working Palliard C-8 and lens! I don't have a need for three enlargers so I'm hoping to find the Omega a good home soon. Anyways, the 45m was less than stellar. It looked like it had been sitting in a dusty smokey basement for 20 or so years, but it's built like a tank, so everything fired up and worked normally. So I plan to tear it down and fully clean it, strip bad paint and repaint, replace wiring, etc. I want to keep as many of the original parts as possible, only replacing what is necessary.
The first thing I noticed upon tear down was that the spring in the lower crossbar de-tensioned. Looking around on the forums here I see some info suggesting it can be re-tensioned rather easily. The second thing I noticed was that the wiring coming of the motor is very brittle, and a break is forming in the wire. Are replacement motors for this relatively cheap/available? The only one I've been able to find so far is on Ebay for $325. Perhaps it will be easier to have it repaired locally, ideally by a place that can fix the motor up as well. It runs fine but smells really bad, like burning dust, which makes sense considering the outside of the enlarger.
I'm also interested in repairing or replacing the bellows, but I'm unsure how much light leakage is too much. When shinging a powerful flashlight through it in a dark room, you can see little pinholes in the corners. There are no clear breaks, but the pin-holing is consistent throughout. It is much less apparent when using the enlargers actual light. I feel like this should be relatively easy to repair with gaff tape or black cloth. IS there a general consensus on how much light leaking from a bellows is too much?
Cheers
I'm restoring a 1950's Beseler 45m and looking for advice on parts, as well as to share some thoughts and photos from the project if anyone is interested.
I picked up the enlarger in a lot of three being sold on Facebook marketplace, one of the worst places to buy camera equipment. It with a 23c III XL and an Omega B-600 that were both mint, and the guy threw a working Palliard C-8 and lens! I don't have a need for three enlargers so I'm hoping to find the Omega a good home soon. Anyways, the 45m was less than stellar. It looked like it had been sitting in a dusty smokey basement for 20 or so years, but it's built like a tank, so everything fired up and worked normally. So I plan to tear it down and fully clean it, strip bad paint and repaint, replace wiring, etc. I want to keep as many of the original parts as possible, only replacing what is necessary.
The first thing I noticed upon tear down was that the spring in the lower crossbar de-tensioned. Looking around on the forums here I see some info suggesting it can be re-tensioned rather easily. The second thing I noticed was that the wiring coming of the motor is very brittle, and a break is forming in the wire. Are replacement motors for this relatively cheap/available? The only one I've been able to find so far is on Ebay for $325. Perhaps it will be easier to have it repaired locally, ideally by a place that can fix the motor up as well. It runs fine but smells really bad, like burning dust, which makes sense considering the outside of the enlarger.
I'm also interested in repairing or replacing the bellows, but I'm unsure how much light leakage is too much. When shinging a powerful flashlight through it in a dark room, you can see little pinholes in the corners. There are no clear breaks, but the pin-holing is consistent throughout. It is much less apparent when using the enlargers actual light. I feel like this should be relatively easy to repair with gaff tape or black cloth. IS there a general consensus on how much light leaking from a bellows is too much?
Cheers