Easel recommendations

Cybertrash · Oct 19, 2014

Hello all,

I am finding it terribly difficult to maintain even borders on my prints using my current 4-bladed Saunders easel. The rulers, when set to the correct paper size, never line up properly with the scores cut out in the easel for aligning the prints (I suspect the scores are made for aligning American paper sizes). Yesterday I was attending a workshop and got the chance to use a simpler 2-bladed easel, which I found considerably more easier to achieve even borders, both in terms of even sizes all around, as well as straight margins. It made me think about the possibility of acquiring a 2-bladed easel for myself. The easel I used was made by LPL. and I understand these are fairly common, however it did feel a little (for lack of better term) "cheap", the rulers were flimsy, the easel was easy to knock about on the baseboard and didn't inspire any parcticular confidence in it's construction.

So I was wondering, if I were to look for a 2-bladed easel of a slightly higher quality, which brands and models should I be looking out for? A few features I would enjoy would be the ability adjust the size of the borders, preferably with some sort of scale (the LPL was adjustable but had no scale), sturdy construction and straight rulers.

paul_c5x4 · Oct 19, 2014

Cybertrash said:
So I was wondering, if I were to look for a 2-bladed easel of a slightly higher quality, which brands and models should I be looking out for?

RRB Beard easel ticks most of the boxes for me. Two blade, with big wide arms that remain square. Independently adjustable boarders on the remaining two sides from ¼" to 2" in ¼" steps (6mm-50mm). Solid construction with a fair bit of weight so it does not move around on the table unless you want it to.

Down side - They seem to hold their value and most sellers ask a hefty price.

pentaxuser · Oct 19, 2014

I think the 2 blade Beard easels will meet your requirements. Just be aware that when you change sizes of paper they need moving and when you do this the easel may be obstructed by the enlarger column if this is a perpendicular one.

It might help if you say what kind of enlarger you have and what's the biggest size of prints you want.

Once we know that then hopefully those with the same enlarger can say how big the easel can be before there is any problem with the column

pentaxuser

mwdake · Oct 19, 2014

You may already know this, but just to be sure.

With a Saunders 4-blade easel make sure you slide the paper to the left of the slot when the easel is long side is facing you and the slots are at the back, otherwise the borders will not be even left to right.

bdial · Oct 19, 2014

Put a scrap print of your favorite size in the easel upside down with at least one border set the way you want. Draw a short line along that edge and one 90 degrees from it. I start with the top and left. Then turn the paper 180 degrees and match the other two blades to the lines.
Make a couple new lines on the bottom and right blades, do another 180 flip and double check that things line up, or make any needed adjustments.
Once you get things where you like, mark the position of the blades with a marker or some masking tape or whatever.

All adjustable easels will take some fussing to get things perfect, whether two blade or 4. Saunders non-adjustable easels or speed easels or the "5 in one" multi-format easels are nice if you want to avoid fussing. I have all three kinds but use a 4 blade most of the time because of the versatility, and deal with the fussing.

MartinP · Oct 19, 2014

I am another very satisfied Beard easel user. Borders up to 50mm (on my 16x20" model) to the left and to the top, with a very solid and reliable construction.

I also have a smaller, 40cm, easel from Ahel which looks very similar to the one currently sold by Adox. These are three blade easels and you can use them pretty much as a four-blader would be used, to place the exposed area anywhere on the sheet of paper.

A zillion years ago (35 approximately) my first adjustable easel was from LPL, but the construction resulted in slightly random 'squareness' of the borders. It did prove useful as a base for magnetic corners when making borderless prints though.

Steve Goldstein · Oct 19, 2014

I wish I could find an 11x14 or 12x16 Beard easel in the US! Not that I've been turning over every leaf, but the ones I see on eBay all seem to be in the UK.

My 11x14 Saunders VT1400 is the best easel I've ever used, though being a 4-arm design with wide blades it takes up a lot of space under the enlarger. I have 4 or 5 other easels, but they rarely see the light of day. There was also a 16x20 VT2000. Both are fairly uncommon, out of production, heavy, and expensive.

ic-racer · Oct 19, 2014

To use paper of a different size than usual it is no problem to make a small metal or plastic spacer that fits in the slot and keeps the paper in the correct, centered, location. My Saunders even came with a spacer to enable 4x5 paper to be used in the 5x7 slot.

Hilo · Oct 20, 2014

As said earlier, the RRB easels are very good. The Leitz 30X40cm easel works the same way and it will also do 40X50cm paper size. For 50X60cm prints I have the RRB.

With all easels you must check if they're ok, the older ones in particular. The latest Leitz easel, with the white board, is often in perfect shape. But the wooden board versions can be good too, and they do the same.

Easels are so important, economise on something else . . . RRB easels more often show up in the UK and in Holland, Leitz easels in Germany.

Doremus Scudder · Oct 20, 2014

It's not so difficult to simply make your own border indicators. I have pieces of paper the size of my prints and simply put pencil marks on it at the right places. I then move the blades so they are aligned properly. For other odd sizes, I'll just stick pieces of tape on the easel where I wish to align the paper. It's not rocket science.

You won't find much better than the Saunders four-bladed easels. Just make the one you have work.

Best,

Doremus

Mark_S · Oct 20, 2014

I probably have too many easels in my darkroom, but I find that 90% of the time I use either the Saunders 4 blade easel (11x14), or one of the Saunders single size enlarging easels.
The single size enlarging easels have a heavy metal frame that drops down over the paper, giving you a 1/4" border all the way around. I often print using one of these, then trim and mount the print doing my cropping with a rotary cutter. When using the 4 blade easel, I always insert the paper and push it up and to the left to get consistent borders.

Cybertrash · Oct 20, 2014

Thanks for the input everyone,

I've gone ahead and put in an ad on the local photography forum for a 30x40cm Beard easel. When I read about the easels I realized that I actually own one, but it's for 50x60 paper and way too large for my darkroom (I've lent it to my photo club instead), and from what I remember it was very sturdy and had scales in all the right places. I don't think that hitting the enlarger column will be an issue, with my current easel it almost falls off the baseboard when trying to do a 30x40 print from a 6x6 negative.

I see a lot of comments saying that I shouldn't be disregarding my Saunders 4-blade, I wonder if we are referring to the same easel? I've used many copies of this type of easel, and they've all been very finicky and had issues with non-straight rulers and rough adjustments. To clarify, I'm talking about this type:

Rather than this type:

Steve Goldstein · Oct 20, 2014

I've got one of each of those easels. The VT1400 (similar design to the VT3040 you show) is under the enlarger, the other one (I believe it's a called U1417 in the US) is in storage. It never gave me any particular trouble, but now that you mention it perhaps the blades weren't perfectly square. It wasn't a big issue as I trim with a rotary cutter before mounting. The VT is simply a joy to use.

Mark's idea about the Saunders single-size easels is a good one. The size of the VT can be troublesome when I occasionally need to make a fairly big enlargement of a corner of the negative, so this is a solution worth investigating.

Roger Cole · Oct 20, 2014

Steve Goldstein said:
I wish I could find an 11x14 or 12x16 Beard easel in the US! Not that I've been turning over every leaf, but the ones I see on eBay all seem to be in the UK.

My 11x14 Saunders VT1400 is the best easel I've ever used, though being a 4-arm design with wide blades it takes up a lot of space under the enlarger. I have 4 or 5 other easels, but they rarely see the light of day. There was also a 16x20 VT2000. Both are fairly uncommon, out of production, heavy, and expensive.

I bought my VT1400 brand new back in the 90s, on the advice of a friend who ran a custom lab. Tired of fooling with crappy easels I asked him to recommend one that I wouldn't hate. He was right. Just wish I could have afforded to buy a 16x20 as well (not instead of - they ARE big and I doubt I'd have wanted to use the 16x20 for sizes where the 11x14 would do.)

Roger Cole · Oct 20, 2014

Cybertrash said:
Thanks for the input everyone,

I've gone ahead and put in an ad on the local photography forum for a 30x40cm Beard easel. When I read about the easels I realized that I actually own one, but it's for 50x60 paper and way too large for my darkroom (I've lent it to my photo club instead), and from what I remember it was very sturdy and had scales in all the right places. I don't think that hitting the enlarger column will be an issue, with my current easel it almost falls off the baseboard when trying to do a 30x40 print from a 6x6 negative.

I see a lot of comments saying that I shouldn't be disregarding my Saunders 4-blade, I wonder if we are referring to the same easel? I've used many copies of this type of easel, and they've all been very finicky and had issues with non-straight rulers and rough adjustments. To clarify, I'm talking about this type:

View attachment 96387

Rather than this type:

View attachment 96388

Yeah, the bottom one is the V-Track that many of us are praising. If you find one in good condition that you can afford it won't disappoint. This was the one my custom lab owning friend said was the best made. I think he was right. At least I've never seen another I like as much as my V-Track.

Ken Nadvornick · Oct 20, 2014

I also own and have extensively used both types in your pictures. The Saunders 14x17 on top, and a 16x20 VT2000. The former I bought new in the 1980s and used for a couple of decades. The latter I also bought new on clearance after Saunders died. It was the last one in the store, still sealed in the original box. It weighs about 35-pounds.

My 14x17 served me well, but the blades were not perfect. However, they never changed and it is/was rugged as hell. My VT2000 is ungodly good. And the blades are adjustable. I've squared them perfectly and they've stayed that way. Balanced for feather-light raising and lowering, it sits on top of a sheet of real black felt. This allows it to be easily positioned by sliding over the mirror-polished countertop.

The VT2000 is too large for a standard enlarger baseboard. But my Omega D5XL is wall mounted with the plane of the mount intentionally set above the parallel-calibrated countertop below. This allows me to slide the easel underneath the enlarger mount to better allow centering of smaller paper sizes using smaller magnifications.

The 11x17 is/was a good easel. But there is no comparison to a V-Track Saunders, provided you have the room for one.

Ken

Roger Cole · Oct 20, 2014

Yeah, one reason I'm ok with not having the 16x20. My enlarger is just on a baseboard sitting on a table (folding banquet table actually, and it's fine as long as I let any vibration die out, use the footswitch, and don't bump it, all SOP for me by this point) and the 2000 would just be too big. But if I ever see a screaming good deal on one I'll grab it for the day I have room for it.

analoguey · Oct 21, 2014

Where do you get this RRB easel? I saw only 3 results on ebay?
Available elsewhere?

Cybertrash · Oct 22, 2014

Hm, the plot thickens, I've been offered an Ahel Marge 4 for a reasonable price, it looks like this:

Has anyone got experience with this type of easel? I've been unable to find any relevant information on the internet, but it looks to be of high quality. I am unable to see any scales for setting print borders however.

MattKing · Oct 22, 2014

Cybertrash said:
Hm, the plot thickens, I've been offered an Ahel Marge 4 for a reasonable price, it looks like this:

View attachment 96555

Has anyone got experience with this type of easel? I've been unable to find any relevant information on the internet, but it looks to be of high quality. I am unable to see any scales for setting print borders however.

It certainly looks impressive.

I would assume that the markings on the knobs would serve as scales.

pentaxuser · Oct 22, 2014

analoguey said:
Where do you get this RRB easel? I saw only 3 results on ebay?
Available elsewhere?

Google Secondhand Darkroom Supplies and Nova Darkroom. You will need to check if they will ship outside of the U.K.

pentaxuser

cliveh · Oct 22, 2014

Beard easels are the leicas of easels.

Roger Cole · Oct 22, 2014

Never heard of Beard before this thread. Do or did they make a four blade? Shame not to have adjustable borders in two sides.

But my VT is awfully nice.

Sent from my iPhone via Tapatalk using 100% recycled electrons. Because I care.

Mainecoonmaniac · Oct 22, 2014

I had the same problem with my Saunders 4 bladed easel. I like to print my 35mm negs full frame a certain way on an 8x10 sheet of paper. I just save the outtakes that has the correct borders and I adjust the blades with the print in place.

Nige · Oct 22, 2014

bdial said:
Put a scrap print of your favorite size in the easel upside down with at least one border set the way you want. Draw a short line along that edge and one 90 degrees from it. I start with the top and left. Then turn the paper 180 degrees and match the other two blades to the lines.
Make a couple new lines on the bottom and right blades, do another 180 flip and double check that things line up, or make any needed adjustments.
Once you get things where you like, mark the position of the blades with a marker or some masking tape or whatever.

I do this. I generally keep the 'template' for future use too.

I'm severly easel limited (a crappy 11x14ish 2 bladed LPL and a fixed size 8x10 Durst Commask thingy that flips over to do 2 5x7's or 4 4x5s on one 8x10 piece of paper) but I only window mount with no edges showing so it doesn't matter if the edges of the print are straight, just that the mount has been cut straight! I use 12x16 paper in the LPL and the image ends up in the corner (I trim some of the excess off later but it would be nice to be able to centre the image on the paper), or just put the paper (which I do for larger than 12x16 anyway) straight on the baseboard. Always lusted of one of the VTracks but never done anything about it!

Easel recommendations

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