Help opening Focomat 1c lamphouse

Hi folks,

Ok, I feel like an idiot. I just picked up a Leitz Focomat 1c, and I'd like to replace the bulb, but for the life of me, I can't figure out how to do it. I've tried pulling up on the top "dish.' I've Tried unscrewing the whole thing...even tried prying the top and bottom pieces apart with a screwdriver. The thing just won't budge.

Is there a trick to this, or am I just missing something completely obvious?

Thanks in advance for your help.

b.

I honestly don't know much about these enlargers, but here's a manual for it: http://members.cox.net/leitzleica/Manual.html. Maybe that will help some.

Here's a second one on this page: http://manuelsphoto.free.fr/

Thanks for the link Garry. Much appreciated. After hearing some advice from a kind soul over on photo.net, I decided to just bite the bullet and grab a screwdiver and hammer and "tap" the top off. After a few ticks here and there (and some scuff marks), it popped right off. Whew!

Of course, after replacing the bulb (I'd found a source for the correct bulbs earlier), there I'm not seeing any light, so I'm now assuming the wiring is bad. I noticed when I got the unit that the wire coming down the pole had no ground, just one hot, so perhaps there's some disconnect or other electrical situation. I guess it's time to hit home depot for some new electics.

Thanks again,

b.

Ahhh, to bad you had to use tools on such an old lady. As you found out it just needs a little wiggling to come straight up.
The wirring is connected under the base board and if yours is like mine there is a switch on the front left hand side that could be defective but, these enlargers last longer than their users so it is likely not a big problem. Did you manage to get the Focotar lense with it?


jan

Hey Jan,

Yeah, I feel aweful for applying force like that. These machines are beautiful. It seems that someone really smashed it down previously. Now I'm able to pull it off with just my fingers, thank goodness.

On the elect front, I managed to get it temporarily working by stealing a cord from an old lamp and splicing it directly to the cord that comes out of the lamphouse. By plugging that into my gralab timer, the light at least behaves as it should...and I feel better knowing at least that I'm grounding the power. I'd hate to see this thing bathing in flames.

Oh, and although it only came with an elmar (enlarging lens elmar) with what looks like some weird crystaline structure on the front, I did find a nice 2nd gen focotar on ebay for 80 bucks the other day. I "think" that's a good deal. We'll see when it gets here, of course.

Gambling on ebay from Western Mass,
b.

The lamp-house wiring on these old Leitz enlargers gets pretty fragile with time. The insulation was natural rubber [or something like it] and it hardens, cracks and turns to powder. Best to replace the wiring from the lamp-house to the plug on the top of the enlarging column with 'SJ' 90 degree C rated cable. The ground on the enlarger is usually a wing-nut at the bottom of the enlarger column.