De Vere 504 - New owner questions

I managed to pick up a De Vere 504 free standing unit with dichro head. A couple of questions.

1 - I had to get this beast up two flights of stairs. In order to do this I had to remove the baseboard frame. The focus wheel cogs then came out of their chain. Does anyone have the correct threading method for the chains? I've got the head and bellows moving but I'd like to make sure it's installed correctly.

2 - The trans stab works fine but buzzes when I switch the lamp on.

3 - The fan is noisy but I've ordered a replacement from Maplin. Are they all 230V fans?

Otherwise it's a great piece of kit and the seller threw in 50, 75 and 135mm Rodagons, all size masking frames and a set of mixing boxes.
Just one last question. I find the enlarger very easy to use for 5x4 and MF but do you suggest keeping a smaller enlarger (I have a couple of Durst Mod 70's) for 35mm as I find that the head is quite close to the baseboard on the 504 when trying to print 10x8 from 35mm. This is resulting in shorter exposure times than normal.

The manuals are still available from Odessey Sales, and from KHB Photographic in Canada. (I'm not sure of the spelling for the place in Canada). The manual shows how the chains go.

Regarding exposure times, do you have the 4x5 mixing chamber? Using this instead of the one for medium format and smaller will lose you about 1 stop of light. You could also use a neutral density filter, preverably above the negative. Rosco makes filters taht would work. I prefer to use my De Vere for everything, as I don't have a smaller enlarger that can be aligned as well.

leeturner said:

I managed to pick up a De Vere 504 free standing unit with dichro head. A couple of questions.

1 - I had to get this beast up two flights of stairs. In order to do this I had to remove the baseboard frame. The focus wheel cogs then came out of their chain. Does anyone have the correct threading method for the chains? I've got the head and bellows moving but I'd like to make sure it's installed correctly.


2 - The trans stab works fine but buzzes when I switch the lamp on.

Click to expand...

So does mine, there's a lot of transformer in that transtab, so it's not really that surprising and certainly nothing to worry about. Unless it starts to smoke of course ;-)

leeturner said:

3 - The fan is noisy but I've ordered a replacement from Maplin. Are they all 230V fans?

Click to expand...

Again so is mine, do you have a record of the stock number you used from Maplin? and yes it is a 230v fan.

Cheers

Martin

I have the same unit.

When I need to make small 35mm prints, I switch to a 105mm lens this pushes the enlarging head up, resulting in normal, instead of extremely short exposure times.

Mick.

Thanks guys. I'll dig out a 105mm and try it.

One more thing. Is it possible to wire up a plug to use a normal timer as the timer that came with the enlarger isn't working properly, however I have the plug that goes into the trans stab. Opening up the plug there are only four wires connected plus the earth. It looks as though two pins have been permanantly connected.

It is posible to use a normal timer. I have a normal timer with it's own foot switch connected to mine.

I'll have a look at my set-up tomorrow to see exactly what I did when I originaly set the enlarger up.

By the way, I left the chain covers off my enlarger. After I finally figured out how to put the chains on, that is. This was pre internet days.

This allows me to lubricate the chains every year with motorcycle chain lube, which as most motorcyclists know, sticks like excrement to a blanket.

If I remember correctly, I had an electrician mate figure how to wire, (safely) power into the transtab.

Mick.