Help with Omega D3, stuck head

Myxine · Sep 3, 2015

Good afternoon all,

I need help with an Omega D3 (old autofocus one) that I bought on craigslist for the photography club at my school. I'm not sure if I did something wrong, if it was the transport or if it was sold to me with a fault. Anyway, the head is stuck at the top, the lifting and holding bars of the condenser can't pass the top of the column. I don't see any obvious adjustment screw that I could use to wiggle the head down. Does somebody know the enlarger and has a solution to offer?

Any help would be appreciated

Arnaud

removed account4 · Sep 3, 2015

hi arnaud

do you have a picture of the front of the head ?
john

ps if the guys from adam-12 or emergency !
were around i am sure they would know what to do
http://ritamalloy.tumblr.com/post/101981976633/adam-12-vs-emergency-boy-rescue-battle-royal

Myxine · Sep 3, 2015

They're experts at stuck heads indeed!! On my side, I just need that one to get over that bump. Less dramatic

The picture is from the front, I removed the condenser head, so you just see the support bars that are blocked by the top of the frame. If that makes sense

mwdake · Sep 3, 2015

I had a similar thing happen on a D5 I transported.

Make sure the black train wheel looking things that ride up and down the column have not moved inwards so the that the high part of the wheel is riding on the track. They kind of work like train wheels in the the flat part of the wheel is on the track.

Myxine · Sep 4, 2015

I think I know what you mean. There are 2 bars with those train wheels, one on each side and they keep the whole head in place. I had actually removed the 2 front wheels and had managed to have the head move past the blockage but the rear gears had move back and would not touch the rail teeth anymore: couldn't move the head anymore. To put those front train wheels again, my only choice was to move the head up again and back to initial problem

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

jvo · Sep 4, 2015

i have a d2, so i may be off on this.... i know that inside the aluminum column, (looking from the top down), there are red alignment or friction pads... could they be out of place or misaligned??

good luck

jvo

BMCha · Sep 5, 2015

If the lifting arms are anything like on the D-4 (well, the D-4 arms that fit to the dichroic head) and you have a hex key of the right size (Omega specified a "#10 allen key", and I found that a Torx T-10 bit fit perfectly), you can loosen the two set screws on an end of each arm and pull out the shafts. If I have the right idea of your problem, that should allow you to lower the carriage and then you can put the lifting arms back. I've attached a picture of the set screws in question. My arms have two each. Loosen them and you should be able to pull the arm off the shaft, which you can then slide out of the carriage.

Note that doing this will upset the alignment of the lifting arms on each side, but it's very easy to realign (and not nearly as critical as e.g. the lens alignment).

Myxine · Sep 7, 2015

Thank you guys! I'll try those 2 ideas when i get back to class tomorrow! Will keep you posted

Help with Omega D3, stuck head

Myxine

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