Durst glass inserts 6.5x9cm: sources, alternatives?

sandermarijn · Jan 8, 2012

I'm struggling to find a pair of glass inserts for my Durst M800 enlarger. The pair consists of an anti-Newton glass (Durst Auda 70 AN) on top and a piece of ordinary transparent glass underneath (Durst Auda 70). They are both about 67x96mm in size, and beveled on all sides (although only the long side matters).

Durst Italy doesn't have any of these in stock anymore and I can't find them in any other place either, locally or online (bar one Italian shop that offers the lower half only).

I looked into other options such as using other brand glass (Kaiser), but these won't fit the carrier (Setoneg). I wouldn't know where to get the right size custom made.

Anybody run into the same sort of problem and found a solution?

It is possible to use metal masks instead, but these won't let me print the film's edge (unless you widen the opening in the mask, but this introduces other problems, film flatness in particular).

Thanks for any help,
Sander

Len Middleton · Jan 8, 2012

Sander,
I do not know your location from the information given, but Focal Point in the USA does both optical glass and AN glass cut to size.
See: http://fpointinc.com/index.htm I have purchased glass from Mike before and he has been extremely helpful.
Hope that is helpful to you,
Len

sandermarijn · Jan 8, 2012

A fellow APUG'er suggested Mike at http://fpointinc.com/glass.htm for custom made glass. I've dropped him a line.

Mike is in the US. Would anybody know a source of glass closer to home (EU). Thanks!

sandermarijn · Jan 8, 2012

Thanks a lot Len. Ian C just PM'ed me with the same address.

BTW I'm in Netherlands, Europe.

gorbas · Jan 8, 2012

Hi Sander, this is what i did with my M800. I took Meopta Magnifax 3 anti Newton glass and cut it and bevel it with sand paper on long sides. Then I made metal inserts for formats I' using. 24x36, 24x58, 58x58mm.

"you widen the opening in the mask, but this introduces other problems, film flatness in particular" -
There is nothing to worry about! Film is going to be flat as possible. You need to widen opening no more than 0.5mm from each side. I will be more concern about alignment of the enlarger when this job is done! Find VersaLab Parallel tool.

Bob-D659 · Jan 8, 2012

I have a Durst 659, it uses the same glass. For 35mm and 645 negs, I made lower masks from aluminum and beveled the edges. I picked up a piece or two of lower glass from ebay.de a few years ago. They pop up fairly often on ebay, but the AN versions are quite rare from what I've seen. Also the Durst 606 uses the same glass in the lower half of its carrier, along with a condenser in the top half. A complete carrier was had for less than the price of the glass.

sandermarijn · Jan 9, 2012

gorbas said:
Hi Sander, this is what i did with my M800. I took Meopta Magnifax 3 anti Newton glass and cut it and bevel it with sand paper on long sides. Then I made metal inserts for formats I' using. 24x36, 24x58, 58x58mm.

Thanks gorbas. I've been thinking of getting some different-size glass, but then I don't have the tools or the skill to get them the right size and beveled. How do you cut the glass? Some sort of glass cutter device? As you can see, I'm not much of a handyman.

gorbas said:
"you widen the opening in the mask, but this introduces other problems, film flatness in particular" -
There is nothing to worry about! Film is going to be flat as possible. You need to widen opening no more than 0.5mm from each side. I will be more concern about alignment of the enlarger when this job is done! Find VersaLab Parallel tool.

I've become a bit film-flatness-traumatized from working with a Meopta Axomat enlarger too long. You're probably right in that there is nothing to worry about in the case of Durst negative holders. If the film (120 size, 56x56mm) were to 'pop', it would be upwards no, where it is held firm by the AN-glass?

sandermarijn · Jan 9, 2012

Bob-D659 said:
I have a Durst 659, it uses the same glass. For 35mm and 645 negs, I made lower masks from aluminum and beveled the edges. I picked up a piece or two of lower glass from ebay.de a few years ago. They pop up fairly often on ebay, but the AN versions are quite rare from what I've seen. Also the Durst 606 uses the same glass in the lower half of its carrier, along with a condenser in the top half. A complete carrier was had for less than the price of the glass.

Thanks for your advice Bob. I will continue searching on ebay and elsewhere. These semi-professional enlargers like the M800/659 don't pop up too often, but if the price is right I may get one just for the masks/glass and for the negative carrier. It must be much nicer to swap the entire carrier than to have to change the precious glass every time you go from 135 to 120 and v.v. Being a bit lazy as well I guess.

gorbas · Jan 10, 2012

Hi Sander,
I just bought nice glass cutter ($30) and did it myself with help of square tool.
I protected surface of glass with masking tape leaving open track just for cutting.I did mark cutting lines with Sharpie marker.
I do not consider myself Master handyman, so anybody can do it.
Most likely on Axomat you didn't have glass on the top. As I remember them they had some kind of channels for film on the bottom and on top part of glassles carrier.

If there is a pop it will be up and there is AN glass to prevent it.
As for bottom mask, you are fine as long as you find right thickens of metal sheet, as same as thickens of original glass.
Years ago I made similar masks for Magnifax 3 too.
If you really afraid to cut glass yourself, you can always ask for help from local optical or glass shop.
Goran

paul_c5x4 · Jan 10, 2012

One company I have used in the past for some specialist filters was UQG Optics in Cambridge (UK). They do AN glass and can cut/bevel, but at a price. Ordinary domestic glazing companies, whilst able to cut and bevel glass, do not seem to pay much attention to small scratches or close tolerances - At least that was my experience when wanting some 5x4 plates cut for some gelatin-on-glass projects.

sandermarijn · Jan 10, 2012

Thanks for all the help. I have an order out for glass from Focal Point. Should be here in 3-4 weeks.

@gorbas: No glass cutting for me it seems, phew. The negative carrier of my Axomat did not have the possibility to use glass. Just a fixed square hole in the negative carrier. Design wasn't great, the negatives always popped, and even before they did it was impossible to get the entire negative in one focal plane. The negative carrier forced even the flattest of negs into a bulge. But at the time I didn't know any better and was happy with what I had.

@paul: Thanks for the link. They seem rather professional. Maybe useful for some kind of future use.

sandermarijn · Jan 23, 2012

Mike's glass arrived last week and it's excellent. His service is great too- always a quick and helpful answer. Highly recommended!

Durst glass inserts 6.5x9cm: sources, alternatives?

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