Bessler 23C question

[Aovbug]

I have shot 35mm and medium format for 55 years and done my own darkroom work, when I used to shoot 4x5 I took it to my lab at school BUT NOW...... There is no lab in Seattle that will do my photo's quickly so I am doing my own. Down my question;
Can I modify my Bessler 23C to do my 4x5 negs up to 8x10 size prints?
Any help would be appreciated.
agovbug

 

[jim10219]

Not really. You'd have to replace the entire head to accommodate a bigger negative holder, and cast a bigger beam of light so that it would illuminate the edges of the 4x5 film. I mean, technically yes you could replace those parts to do it. But it would be cheaper and easier to find a used Beseler 45MX or something similar.

If you keep an eye out long enough, I'm sure a good 4x5 enlarger will pop up sooner or later. And when they do, they're often not too expensive. I got mine for free, with a little bit of patience.

 

[Steve Goldstein]

Eight or ten years ago member konakoa presented a very clever modification of the Beseler 23C to handle 4x5 negatives. He built an LED-based UV/Green head (you'll absolutely need a bigger light source!) and used modified Omega carriers, along with several physical modifications he made to the enlarger parts themselves. This is a permanent modification and the enlarger will no longer be usable for 35mm and 6x6/6x7. I'm not sure if his writeup still exists on the Interwebs somewhere.

 

[Jim Blodgett]

Aovbug- Are you wanting to print b+w or color? I have some excess equipment I would be willing to give you that would allow you to print b+w. I have most of the parts to put an Omega D2 together - you would need a lens, a power supply, some negative carriers and possibly a couple minor parts. And I have an Omega 67 that I think is complete, but I don't think that will print 4x5.

I do have an Omega color head we could retrofit to the D2 chassis but I actually paid for that so I would have to charge you a little for that.

I live a little east of Olympia. Get in touch and let me know.

 

[kevs]

Eight or ten years ago member konakoa presented a very clever modification of the Beseler 23C to handle 4x5 negatives. He built an LED-based UV/Green head (you'll absolutely need a bigger light source!) and used modified Omega carriers, along with several physical modifications he made to the enlarger parts themselves. This is a permanent modification and the enlarger will no longer be usable for 35mm and 6x6/6x7. I'm not sure if his writeup still exists on the Interwebs somewhere.

This is the post you refer to: https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/diy-4x5-enlarger-and-led-head.70129/#post-985214

His website is no longer alive but it's in the internet archive. The pictures that went with it are gone. https://web.archive.org/web/20120607041152/http://www.deadbread.com/crumbs/23c.html