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Diy 8x10 enlarger vs vintage Elwood

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MTGseattle

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Wow. There are a lot of interesting solutions in that thread. Thanks. Peel and stick material is going to be tricky in some of the shapes, I'll probably use a spray on material.

@Andrew O'Neill Apo-Nikkor 240mm
 
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MTGseattle

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I got the Elwood out of my car and into my basement today. I will likely disassemble and do some cleaning. This leads to some questions.

1.all I see to retain the lens board is a small maybe 25mm square piece of thin steel.
If this is correct, I may look into modifying or making an adapter to take the Saunders/Lpl 4550 style lens cones.
Or maybe a free 23cII will pop up and I can cannibalize the lens stage pieces.

2. The stabilizing or parallel holding “fin.”

The part that keeps the main column and lens stage rails separate but parallel. Is this supposed to be a cast piece?
Mine is made of wood.

3. Does the Bellows actually need to be so large to accomplish its job?

4. I’m really tempted to bolt the thing right to my floor to maximize available height.
Aside from it then being semi-permanent, are there any drawbacks to this idea?

I’m really curious which model Elwood built first? 8x10 then shrink the tooling and forms to make the smaller ones or vice versa?

 

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MTGseattle

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It’s concrete, and It’s my house, not a rental.
 

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The wood is factory. I think some may of had a cast part. The springs (lifts) are same as 5x7, only 8x10 came with 2. Lens boards are the same as Kodak (IIRC) There exists an Elwood cast adapter that allows the use of 4x4 inch Beseler style lens boards. My buddy has one of these and she built a wooden platform with 6 inch wheels off an old lawnmower, puts the enlarger about 8 inches off the floor. Allows for the enlarger to be raised full height if you have 8' basement ceiling.
Mounting on the concrete would work but......?
Her unit has huge bellows too.
500W mogul base bulbs.
 

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Wood piece looks ok.
Making a custom lensboard holder seems like a good idea. You could also attach it with 3 spring-loaded fasteners so it can be tilted/aligned to the negative stage.
Bellows draw for 1:1 with 300mm lens is 600mm. If you want to make reductions, more than that would be needed.
Having mentioned that, when I made bellows for one of my 8x10 cameras, I did make them shorter than the original, knowing I'd not be uisng long lenses.

Attach to the floor? Maybe use drop anchors so it is not permanent:

 
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MTGseattle

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I have 80" height available, so placing this thing on a thick base is not really an option. Main 2-piece column is 70" tall. If anyone is curious, it will not stand up on its own. The head casting is heavy and projects quite a bit away from the column. It's quite "tippy."

@ic-racer , I have actually never seen those particular anchors before. I guess when I have to attach things to concrete it is usually to augment poorly placed foundation anchors, or firring out a foundation wall to get a place for insulation where I would typically use wedge anchors or Ramset fasteners both of which are not seen when finished and are not meant for removal.

@mshchem I did not get any of the original upper lamphouse parts. I got an Aristo cold light with it.

After my post last night, I did some more looking and there is a slot on one side of the lens stage casting that accepts the lens board, so the little single piece of steel makes more sense now.

The cast base on my unit actually has 5 places to send bolts into the floor or base panel. 4 corners, and a 5th "eye" in the rear center. I realize "base" may confuse the issue. The lower part of the main column from the pivot point down is what I am referring to as the "base." There is a worrying amount of slop between the 2 sections of the column. I have the bolt in place that secures the 2 sections, maybe I just need to apply some more torque?

My other thought regarding bolting to the floor is time. I would guess 20 minutes to get it bolted to the floor vs anywhere from 1-4 hours building a wood base depending upon scrap use and how much milling I had to do.

For extra stability, it looks like there are 2 holes dead center up on top of the column where one could swap to a single center support spring vs the left/right pair of springs. (or add a 3rd spring I guess since there is a 3rd hook)? To me, these "extra" holes are a prime location for a strap or some type of top end support strut.

To turn this into a needlessly expensive undertaking, I will now haul the thing off to have it blasted and powder coated.
 

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No don't paint it, ruins the look
 

ic-racer

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MTGseattle said:
To turn this into a needlessly expensive undertaking, I will now haul the thing off to have it blasted and powder coated.
Click to expand...

Fantastic! Looking forward to it. How about the bellows? Keep or replace?
 

mshchem

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Doesn’t need any extra springs, doesn't need a top brace ( as long as there's no earth shaking)
 

glbeas

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You can buy flocking powder from woodworking stores in many colors. Application is to coat the part with glue and sift the flocking on. After blowing the loose material off you are good to go.
 
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MTGseattle

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That 4x4 adapter looks nice and simple.

The "look." normally I would agree, but this sample is pretty beat up. My last powder coating estimate out here was downright frightening, so it may only receive a thorough cleaning and some strategic re-flocking.

I wasn't saying it needed an extra spring, just that the infrastructure for adding one or moving them is there. Since my column is sloppy, maybe a top brace would help? I'm sure I could shim the mating surfaces of the column as well.

The bellows seemed to be free of pinholes, but is super dirty. I think this poor beast spent some time in the same space as some woodworking equipment. (I know what that is like)

I may at least get a quote from Custom Bellows just to have an idea.
 

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Spray paint may work. I found Rustoleum Hammerd Metal Silver was a perfect match for my Nuarc light table, and the Gray a perfect match for my Durst.
 

mshchem

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ic-racer said:
Spray paint may work. I found Rustoleum Hammerd Metal Silver was a perfect match for my Nuarc light table, and the Gray a perfect match for my Durst.
Click to expand...

I've used this stuff, gives a nice look. There's a Nuarc light table at a secondhand shop near me, beautiful piece.
 
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MTGseattle

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If I refinish this beast, it will be diy. I called 3 different shops this morning; Random odd-sized item blasting is $180-200 per hour. This is where living in a big. affluent area bites me in the butt.

My costs for all of the hardware needed to bolt it to the floor = $33. Those neat machine screw anchors @ic-racer showed are slick, but one has to buy the punch tool for them as well.

I'm curious if any of you have a big head elevation knob on both sides. There's an ebay listing for one that has a large wheel on both sides. It's possible one of them is the elevation lock wheel I guess?

Elwood 8x10 Enlarger | eBay

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">Floor standing Elwood 8x10 enlarger on a mobile base. Comes with lamp head, bulb, focusing section, column, film holder, 2 lens boards (no lenses) and 4 dark slides to control illumination. Just needs an enlarging lens (about 150mm), glass...
www.ebay.com
 

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I'm a bit late to this one, but: why not do the non-reflective surfaces with Black 4.0? That stuff eats light and doesn't shed flocking dust for the next 7 billion years.
 
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MTGseattle

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I kicked some of the updates over to the lfpf site.

@Sundowner Black 4.0 is a good idea (reading the saga of the "Blackest paint war" was quite fun also)

I will likely abandon even more of the stock Elwood top section and make a wood frame to hold an led light source (or the Aristo unit) closer to the negative.

The slop I noted in the column; I first tried some rubber sheet to close the gaps. This led to a weird alignment. I then removed the rubber strips and simply tightened the column bolt completely. It seems the people who cast this thing knew what they were doing.

I goofed one expansion anchor when I bolted it to the floor. I came home one night and luckily the other 2 bolts held, or I would have had a crushed lens and broken light source. If you're using a given hardware for the first time and you are questioning the alignment, stop and review the manufacturers wisdom, don't just wing it as I did.

I have an idea for ditching the column all together and wall mounting this beast, but we shall see. Wall mounting doesn't solve my ceiling height issue.

Oh, Easel directly on floor, sized for a roughly 14x17 print on 16x20 paper, fucused using a 240mm lens, my lens to easel height is 32 inches. Hands and knees printing for sure. I don't think my wall mount idea is going to fix that either.
 
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