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Found an Automega E-5 Autofocus enlarger body

Tom,

Good progress!

I have the feeling that the rail will probably work with a replacement lens of the type specified if you shim the rail (if it doesn't work straight off). It will probably take some experimentation, but I don't think it should be too hard. The old Oxberry Animation stands we used to use for 16 and 35mm motion pictures operated on the same principal and I remember having to shim a rail outward for a replacement lens with sheets of thin steel stock to get it to focus at minimum distance, but then it maintained focus until the very end of the rail where we hardly ever used it. Explore the ends of where the rails are attached; they may have some slight play you can move in or out to obtain good focus. I would try establishing close focus first, then go to farthest point and establish, then run back and check. Might have to do this a few times and it can be fiddly, but once you get it right, it's done and you don't have to mess with it again.

The best possible outcome is if you find a replacement and it just works! It could happen...

Kodak used to make a very specialized high temp lamp house paint that was ungodly expensive, but unless you are going to be doing super critical color work with the head, just a good heat resistant, pure white paint should work if you recoat the entire interior of the lamp house. You might have to use some bondo or something to fill in the cracked coating on there before you repaint it. There has to be a suitable filler; don't know if auto bondo would do the trick but it might.

Frank
 
Thank you Frank. No doubt I will be following up shortly with more questions.
cheers
Tom
 
A friend, who is a master printer, uses the 2 sheets of taped glass as a carrier in his E5.
 
Kino said:
Tom,

The best possible outcome is if you find a replacement and it just works! It could happen...
Click to expand...
Yes! Toto and I are on it...

The coating on the inside of the lamphouse has a yellowish color and has a shiny finish. Or had - it's being sandblasted off as I write. I tried to remove the paint mechanically, but that was very hard. I might have muddled through, but I expect there would be damage to the lamphouse in the process. I also let chips of the paint soak in various volatile solvents (alcohol, acetone, toluene), a baking soda solution, and hot soapy water, all to no good effect after a 3-day soak. Didn't dry potentially obnoxious solvents that might leave a a smell though, I don't want to make more work for myself.

The shiny property of the original coating has me wondering though: I would have expected a matte finish, as Omega claims to have designed the lamphouse as an integrating sphere. I think a flat finish is preferred for integrating spheres. There may have been heating considerations that required a finish unlike the integrating sphere I worked with 20+ years ago. No doubt Omega designed the best integrating sphere they could given their design constraints.

In any case, I wonder if any of the folks who have a functioning E-5 can comment? Is the lamphouse interior finish shiny? White or off white? I ask because I'm now working on planning the optimum coating, within reason (Spectralon, no thank you!). Current thinking: barium sulfate mixed with Sherwin Williams High Reflectance Flat White, mixed 40/60 by weight, and sprayed on over a self-etching heat resistant primer.
 
Exact colors notwithstanding, automotive high temp white paint would probably do the trick. There were two types, one for engine blocks and one for exhaust pipes- I suspect either would work in your application.
The color drift in lamp houses as enlargers age doesn’t seem to have a lot of practical effect.
 
I suspect any white paint will do. If it is getting hot enough to require special paint, something is wrong. Ultimately the evenness of illumination will probably be related to evenness of fluorescent coating inside the tube.
BTW the housing of my folded tube head required dark paint in the center, behind the tube, to prevent a bright spot in the middle.
 
Greetings. I've made some progress with this enlarger: I disassembled it completely and cleaned all the parts; replaced or cleaned all the steel components that had rusted (nuts, washers, screws); adjusted the panels that controlled the engagement of the gears with the toothed strut flange, adjusted the nylon bumpers governing the side-to-side alignment of the carriage; and put together a reasonable base mount system. Both elevation gears had a broken tooth at the same location, which caused a 'slip' when the carriage was raised or lowered. No replacements being available, I simply rotated one of the gears 180 degrees (there were 12 teeth per gear, and their symmetry allowed this rotation without disturbing gear mesh). I installed the two stock counterbalance units to relieve stress on the gears, and park the carriage so that the single-tooth engagement positions are avoided.

The paint on the interior of the lamphouse resisted all the chemicals I threw at it, and was almost impossible to scrape off. I took the two halves of the lamphouse to a local tradesman whose work on custom motorcycles I had seen and admired, and he sandblasted the interior paint off in a trice. The shells were mounted in plywood and 2x4 boxes that supported the shells and protected the exterior of the shells from abrasion. I watched the sandblasting, and thought the sandblaster was careful and gentle. However, the bottom of the lower half of the lamphouse distorted significantly , something I noticed only a few hours after taking the shells home.

Along the edges of the 5"x7" opening (through which the 'integrated' light from the lamphouse passes to illuminate the negative - one of the photos attached shows the opening) the aluminum bowed outwards by over 1/4". Most of the distortion manifested very close to the edge of the opening, though there was a slight distortion across the floor of the shell. Bowing is at a minimum in the corners, and at a maximum midway between corners. The other attached photo shows the bowing: I laid a typical white legal envelope from one 7" side of the opening to the other, next to the screw holes visible in the first photo, and zoomed in on one of those edges.



No doubt, stress relief is to blame. I can't think of another likely cause. Given the way that I supported the shell, if an excess of force was applied to the shell during blasting, the only direction for the floor of the shell to move would have been opposite to the distortion that actually occurred.

I mention this in case anyone has a bright idea about how to handle this problem, and to raise a warning flag for others considering sandblasting aluminum parts like this one (I assume the part was stamped). Obviously I can remove the existing cushion on the bottom of the shell and replace it with a thicker pad, flattened to mate with the negative carrier. That seems doable. I hesitate to hammer the floor of the shell back into shape: I can imagine some very unwelcome consequences. I could try baking it, but that could unleash a new passel of distortions. Checking the internet, replacement doesn't seem to be an option. I guess clean living just doesn't go as far as it used to.
 
I'd bend that back the way it should be and apply either felt or rubber to the area that will contact the negative holder.
 
ic-racer said:
I'd bend that back the way it should be and apply either felt or rubber to the area that will contact the negative holder.
Click to expand...

It can't be bent amicably, I think - hammering would be required.
ic-racer said:
I'd bend that back the way it should be and apply either felt or rubber to the area that will contact the negative holder.
Click to expand...
Bending the metal back into line - it's tempting. My initial thought on that was that I'd be trying to force a curved strip of metal 5.5" long (for instance) into a straight line only 5.4" long. Seems like a stress-inducing strategy.

I am looking into pourable foam rubber, with the idea that I could scrape off the current mat that cushions the contact between the lamphouse and the negative carrier, then pour a new mat onto the current distorted lamphouse surface. I'd use a form of course, and would want a product that would be approximately self-leveling to give a flat surface on the negative carrier side. I'm not sure a suitable product exists, but I have seen some that are close.
 
If you build it up with foam remember that the farther away the diffuser, the less light in your corners. This is especially important if your diffuser is flat and not thicker in the center, like the Chromega diffusers.
 

A bench vice with padded jaws would probably take care of that bend easily, but you do as you feel comfortable.
 
Kino said:
A bench vice with padded jaws would probably take care of that bend easily, but you do as you feel comfortable.
Click to expand...
I considered your suggestion, it could be worth a try. Given the geometry of the shell around the 5"x7" hole, I think I'd need to press evenly across the bottom of the shell, which is around 9 5/8" in diameter. I think so because the whole bottom plate of the shell is domed now, with the most severe distortion at edges of the 5"x7" opening. I would not care to clamp the bottom plate piecemeal. Given a rigid disk close to matching the shell bottom shape, I could jimmy a clamping scheme with my heavy duty, deep 'throat' wood vises. Maybe a local supplier has some falloff from a 9" aluminum round, or the like. A thick wooden disk might work. I'll check into that.
 
If anyone out there has an Omega autofocus enlarger with focus rails compatible with an Omega Autofocus E-5, I would greatly appreciate a measurement of the "flat" part of the rail for a 161mm, 180mm, or 190mm rail. Or even longer. By the 'flat' part of the rail I mean the null-focus bottom portion, the skinniest part of the rail. I'm looking for the length from the very bottom of the rail to the point where it starts to curve into an increased width. I ask because I have a rail with no association to any lens, but by comparing it to photos of rails online, I deduce that it's for a focal length greater than 150mm but less that 210mm. Thanks,
cheers
Tom
 
ic-racer said:
This is a glass sandwich, held together with tape and masked for the format (35mm in this case) with more tape.
Also, some lens cones are available if you search around.
View attachment 292706
Click to expand...
ic-racer, this seems like a pretty good option to me. I did buy an OEM 4x5 carrier from KHB, and found another 35mm carrier (also OEM) on the auction site, but from here on the field looks sparse and pretty overpriced. Did you take care to use a particular kind of glass in your glass carriers? Are newton rings a problem? Thanks for any tips you can send my way.
cheers
Tom
 
I'm hoping for some input on another issue that's come up on my Automega E-5 restoration project. I'm working on fixing the concavity in the plate that holds the upper bellows frame and also acts as the negative carrier receiver. The concavity introduces a light-leaking gap between the receiver plate and the negative carrier. That seems fixable - I see it as a stress-related condition, not a design 'feature'.

But I'm not sure about the negative carriers themselves. The carriers are made of a thin and a thick aluminum plate that I think should lay flat on one another, but in the cases of the 3 carriers I've obtained (from different sources but all in apparently very good condition), all three leak light betwen the carrier plates. Is this a problem encountered by other owners of E-series enlargers? The light leak is substantial when no negative is in place, and much diminished but still present when a negative is in place.
 
My Omega D6 always allowed a little light out of the edges.
It didn't bother me.
Those enlargers were designed for relative high speed production work. An absolutely light tight negative holder would be inconsistent with that.
It is best not to wear a white dress shirt when you are printing .
 
Thanks, that's good to know.

I have a nifty blackbody ensemble on order for darkroom work.
 
The autofocus track works best in conjunction with a calibrated lens which reference should be marked on the track rail.
But if you don't have that lens or want to use an other one, like I did, I will show you how I got around the AF system...
It works exactly as the AF system with the same mechanical movements, only the focussing is done by hand now, and works with all different lenses possible.
The spring is meant to keep some tention on the lens carrier frame.

PS: the negative carrier is recycled from an old 4"x5" Priox enlarger.

 
Thank you for those photos, and the explanation, Philippe-Georges. Your modifications remind me to think creatively about this project.

The enlarger did come with one matched set of lens/cone/rail, though the condition of the lens isn't great. Disassembly and cleaning may help. I'm awaiting a Vivitar VHE 100mm f5.6 replacement. A second rail was included with the enlarger as well, which I have deduced is probably intended for a 162mm (6 3/8") Raptar or Ektanon lens, but no lens or cone accompanies it. From what I could glean about the 162 mm lenses that might match to the rail, finding a quality sample is a bit of a crap shoot. Since I have a good 150mm Rodagon on hand, I decided to buy a 150mm rail + cone from KHB. I'm keeping ic-racer's observation in post #25 in mind, with the expectation that the autofocus mechanism will keep me close to in-focus as the head elevation changes, fine adjustment coming by hand at the end.
 
If you can't find the right lens plates, or at least not with the right cone or deepness, here is how I solved that problem.
You may not forget that over here in Belgium, although OMEGA was distributed by KODAK, OMEGA enlargers and adequate parts are hard to find as DURST has the hegemony.
I could buy this OMEGA D3 for alms, in the early '90s, and needed some DIY to have it work properly, which it still does to my satisfaction!
The main advantage of an OMEGA, compared to DURST, is that it allows DIY interventions, as it is built rather the 'elementary' way...

For the 50mm, a had to 'add' some deepness as the protruding rear of the lens prevented to slide it in the lens frame.
For the 80mm, I didn't have a lens plate, so I made one out of black acrylic glass(*), Gaffer tape backed with black paper and long 4mm thick screws. Using crews lets you adjust finely the right distance and parallelism.
For the 150mm, I had to add some deepness using a pice of PVC evacuation tube and screws....
The whole lot, enlarger, negative carrier and the lens plates were adjusted on parallelism and alignement using the famous parellel mirror system from HASSELBLAD which I use for reproductions.

(*) I used black acrylic glass to make a set of developing tanks for processing 4"x5" film, acrylic is a good and strong material that handels easily, no complex tools needed just a good Stanley knife, a ruler, a flat file, the right glue and some imagination...

 
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Thanks for those pictures & explanation. As long as E-5 parts are so hard to find and expensive, solutions like yours are on the table. I like the PVC cone idea, though a 3"-4" diameter section might be kind of heavy. I expect the plastic conduit known as DB-120 in the US would be significantly lighter (and cheaper ... construction material costs are through the roof right now).
 
Instead of PVC pipe, you can use a small tin can (pealed tomato's) or even a piece of a square box, perhaps a cleaned canned cornedbeef can or a plastic beaker, and put some black paper inside to stop the light reflecting, just whatever is strong and sturdy enough will do.
At the end, the right lengt can be fine tuned with the screws and bolds, and eventual gaps can be filled with tape or whatever will stick and stop light from leaking.
The 'tube' and its material isn't that important, the assembling of the whole unit is more.
And as they said in Paris May '68: "l'imagination au pouvoir!"...
 
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