Cleaning Saunders/LPL VCCE Filter Glass

[Fragomeni]

Just brought home a Saunders/LPL 4550XLG with VCCE head. I’m going to clean it all up (it’s been stored for a while) but have yet to get into it. When it comes to the head, if there is anything on the filters, what is the correct way to clean them? Would it be safe to use optical glass cleaner or perhaps sensor cleaning wipes?

 

[ic-racer]

I would not touch them unless you know where to get replacements. They are frequently very thin and fragile and almost impossible to replace.
For example, the yellow filter will reflect the blue wavelengths away, if the blue waves get trapped in dirt on the filter or reflect into the black paint in the head and get trapped there, what would be the difference? The yellow still comes through.

Personally I'd concentrate on alignment of negative and lens and centering of lens, make sure the lamp socket is clean, maybe replace that as they have limited life expectance. Make sure cords are in good shape. Find a good lens, maybe tear the lens apart to clean well, look for light leaks in bellows and head and plug them, make sure bottom diffuser is clean, any tiny imperfection there could show up. Maybe get new negative glass if there are any scratches. Every used negative carrier I have bought had scratches and chips in the glass.

I just replaced a socket in one of my heads yesterday. Resist the temptation to poke around where the filters are unless the enlarger is broken and the filters don't move.

 

[Fragomeni]

Solid info. Im going to start cleaning it and setting it up tomorrow. It’s in pretty fantastic shape and purchased from the original owner.

Regarding the filters, you raise a good point. Is there even a need to worry about cleaning them unless there is something very obvious and opaque on them which I doubt because the original owner never even removed the model in the entire time he had it so it was totally closed up basically always. Also, after a bit of reading, I’m finding numerous accounts of folks with the VCCE head and the color head who reported using even cracked filters in some cases with no negative effect on the image. If that’s the case, then I’m probably not even going to mess with them.

And yea, I have a laser collimator so will be using that for leveling etc. Looking forward to getting this set up and going!

 

[Fragomeni]

Just saw your edit/update. Wow you really went in there. What socket were you replacing?

 

[ic-racer]

Just saw your edit/update. Wow you really went in there. What socket were you replacing?

That is a somewhat common MR-16 socket. It is not a speical Omega part, they used an 'off the shelf' component that is easy to find.

But the socket replacement is probably the easiest thing I have done with my enlargers. I rebuilt the power supply with all new components on two of them.

 

[ic-racer]

Saunders/LPL 4550XLG with VCCE head I'd call one of the best latest enlargers ever available in the US market. You are lucky to have one and it could be very expensive to find a replacement as good if anything happened it. This thread is better than someone posting in the rangefinder section they just got a Leica MP price for a new enlarger is $5,879.95 at B&H vs $5,695.00 for the MP.