horizontal enlarger project

[Murray@uptowngallery]

There are many camera construction sites well-documented on the web.

I would like to observe others' efforts with enlarger construction. Can anyone please refer me to any sites depicting successful homebrew horizontal LF enlargers?

Thanks

M

 

[glbeas]

Be sure and look for process camera conversions to enlargers. Clyde Butcher has a huge one converted you can see in a picture on his website. As they are being tossed in the scrapheap you might be able to get a smaller one and make it work for you. Most of the work will be in the light source and the neg carrier, the rest is already there.

 

[Alan9940]

Hello Murray,

Though I haven't enlarged 8x10 negs for quite some time now, my solution was to use my 8x10 camera as the "base" for the enlarger. I custom designed and built a platform that allowed me to securely attach the camera to it with a raised box (if you will) right behind the rear standard that held my 12x12 Aristo coldlight source. I, also, designed and built a "back" which replaced the spring back of the camera. This unit held the film against a single piece of glass (to help with film flatness) and actually clipped onto the back of the camera just like the regular spring-back.

Load the film into my custom holder, slide the light source into place against the holder, add a process lens, a magnetic wall easel (Wisner sold these at one time) and some paper, and you're ready to roll! I tried to be as accurate as possible with alignment between the camera and the wall, but I didn't use anything like a Zig unit, or anything like that. Once the camera was squared up I used a couple of identical length boards to position the camera platform with respect to the wall. Since I never made a print larger than 16x20 I guess the alignment wasn't a big deal once the lens was stopped down a little.

Typing this makes it all sound way more complicated then it was...a few days work figuring out the design and, then, doing the woodworking...okay, I admit, it was maybe a few more than a few days, but the cost factor was minimal.

Good luck. Let us know what you finally end up doing.

 

[Murray@uptowngallery]

Thanks.

It'll be a while, but one little step at a time...

 

[Peter De Smidt]

Well, the easiest thing to do would be to find a real horizontal enlarger.I bought mine for $400 a few years ago, a De Vere 810H complete with color head, and there's no way I could've build something workable as inexpensively. You might also try to find an old "autofocus" Elwood. These have a pivot on the column that allows one to tilt it sideways, but the whole enlarger is cast iron, and it ways a ton. You'd probably have to move the easel to change sizes, and that'd be hard to do while keeping everything in alignment.

 

[Murray@uptowngallery]

Thank you.

I was thinking Superstrut steel frame on wheels.

M