For Sale I made some simple 5x7 and 4x6 easels

Some of you may already know me from various 3D printed negative carriers and accessories for various enlargers, The latest on those is I am working on ANR glass carriers for the larger enlargers as well as carriers for the C760 and LPL 4550.

But today I wanted to share some work I've been doing for making some simple easels for darkroom printing. These were inspired by the difficulty in finding 4x6 Speed-Ez's which itself came up from a recent postcard swap I participated in (on The Naked Photographer's discord).



Unlike Speed-Ez's, you place the paper directly into an inlay and place the top down rather than sliding it across. The finger notch is used to lift the top and paper up once you are done making an exposure and there's rubber feet to keep it from moving around.

This works well for RC paper, including Ilford's Portfolio, though does not currently work well for fiber paper. I'm looking at what I can do for fiber (including using hidden magnets to help press the paper flat) though for now I would recommend using these with RC only for now. On the pro though I can make customized tops. So for instance, if you need to make a 4x6 print (say for a postcard swap) but don't have any 4x6 paper, I have a 4x6 crop top for the 5x7 easel which includes guidelines to trim the paper while keeping a white border. I can also make a top that can be used to make a 4x6 borderless print, or one for a square crop, etc.

I recognize most folks here are likely doing more serious photography and likely already have a capable easel. But I have found these preferable when I'm working with 4x6 and 5x7 and want just a standard border. In particular, I prefer 1/8" borders on my smaller prints whereas my Speed-Ez's and 2 blade easel use 1/4".

Anyways! If this is something you might be interested in, feel free to send me a PM or check out my stores:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/bitbybitphoto
https://www.ebay.com/str/bitbybitphoto

Great work Just a pity that cost wise it is probably prohibitive to try and cater for those who live beyond the famous CONUS

pentaxuser

Thanks, I'm quite happy with them!

I also appreciate the feedback on cost, particularly outside the US (I had to look up what CONUS meant - I think I got it right?). Are you referring to VAT? There isn't much I can do about that I'm afraid.

EU seems to like to ruin everyone's fun sometimes. I've been evaluating selling my DIY rotary (either assembled, as a kit or just the individual parts) and the EU spoils that fun due to requiring expensive testing ($10-20k), even though the electronics of my rotary are all low powered and there's only like 10 components in total. The FCC is no walk in the park either, but to certify the electronics of my rotary would cost 1/5 the price. Still likely too expensive to be viable right now but nearly the pretty staggering costs the EU requires. Long story short, I don't reap the benefits of your taxes so there isn't much I can do in the regard - but I do understand some of the pain there.

That said, I generally make minor adjustments to pricing fairly often depending on how many orders I have at any given time (nearly all my stuff is made to order) and the current climate of the analog film hobby and economics at large. Given the design costs and time and my overhead I thought it was a good place to start given the relative price of a 100 count box of 5x7 or 4x6 Ilford RC paper and the going rate of Speed-Ez's. I did plan on offering discounts of these for any postcard swaps I might end up doing, so I may at some point have discount coupons or a temporary sale price.

Perhaps Harman/Paterson would be interested in partnering with you.

Gosh I hadn't thought of that but that would be lovely! Selling these, like my other things, while it does help fund my film obsession for sure (as in it helps me buy film and sometimes cameras), is in part about providing options for things which are either hard to find (and/or no longer made), too expensive to be accessible to many, or do not exist at all in some cases.

Making say molded versions of these would be amazing for instance (a bit like with Pixl-Latr) but certainly is wildly out of my capability but I mean yeah if Ilford, Harman, or other big folks have an interest, I think that could be a real benefit to film photographers. Particularly newer folks. Intrepid also might be a company to consider given they are trying to make analog film more accessible to new-commers.

If you have any contacts at these companies, do let me know!

Nice! Do you have or would be able to make 35mm, 6x6 and 6x7 negative carriers for Omega LPL C76 (aka Rollie RDE C76) enlarger?

Raghu Kuvempunagar said:

Nice! Do you have or would be able to make 35mm, 6x6 and 6x7 negative carriers for Omega LPL C76 (aka Rollie RDE C76) enlarger?

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I have one for the Omega C760/C67. That one is basically done, I'm just waiting for more feedback from a few customers that have been kind enough to be the first ones to try it out.

The LPL C76 looks to be different, but yes it looks doable though I don't have a ready-made design for it. I'll add it to the design list!

Great idea. Is plastic sufficiently thick and rigid that so that will remain flat over time?
Even metal Speed Ez-Els can warp, as witnessed by some I have purchased used.

Chris

That's a fantastic question Chris!

What I have found in my own testing that, yes, it stays pretty flat. I started working on this months ago with various iterations (using magnets, among other things) and those designs are still very much flat. The times I've had issues were when I was impatient and didn't let the plastic cool before removing from my printers, oops!

Flatness overtime is something I haven't tested beyond those few months, but I don't think it will be a problem save for one exception - if your darkroom gets very warm, storing the easel upright in your darkroom might cause warping over time. I say might because it's something I will be testing in my own darkroom (which gets hot in the summers when I'm not actively cooling it). I've been doing those tests with my carriers (which I advise not to store in very hot spaces either) for several months and, though I don't recommend keeping them in hot spaces either, they have held up quite well. Darkroom has gotten up to around 40C this summer. The carriers are less concerning though since they get sandwhiched and pressed down by the enlargers, so even if they do warp a bit, they should be ok (though mine haven't to this point).

I have thought about what this design might look like with laser cut wood and plan on getting a laser cutter at some point, I'm just not sure when. They would be more expensive I suspect though but would look nicer and fare better with flatness (depending on the wood - I think humidity would be the concern there more than heat).

TL;DR - in my testing thus far, they stay nicely flat, but I don't recommend keeping them in hot places. Like I say with my negative carriers, store them with your lenses.

ChrisPlatt said:

Great idea. Is plastic sufficiently thick and rigid that so that will remain flat over time?
Even metal Speed Ez-Els can warp, as witnessed by some I have purchased used.

Chris

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Never had any warping issues with my Speed-E-Zels, and I've had mine a long time. Maybe the ones you have purchased were mistreated, like maybe stored with too much heavy stuff on them?

Unfortunately, the big (and expensive) Speed E Zels I bought on eBay were also warped. Probably as mentioned, someone sat something heavy on them. I ended up throwing mine away because they couldn't be trusted to be straight. Now I print on a kitchen cabinet door I took off and laid on my my darkroom table. It has a mitered inside that is exactly 11" wide, making it easy to print 11x14's. The FB paper won't lay flat in it, so I made a 11x14 matt from spare wood, and the xtra weight of the wood matt holds even the curliest FB papers flat......until they dry, anyway :}

I think the best Ez is the 8x10, at least for me. I'll still reach for my fancy 4 blade sometimes but for 8x10 I typically like having the 1/4" border and the Speed-Ez is, well, fast and easy! In 5x7 and 4x6 I prefer my design as I like the 1/8" border instead though otherwise I find the 5x7 Ez is a treat to use as well.

I do find the 11x14 Ez to be a bit too much to handle over a bladed easel. With the 8x10 Ez, I get perfect borders to frame my work in a pre-cut mat, but for 11x14 I found the borders are just a bit too thick for pre-cuts. I also had to sand down one of the top edges of the 11x14. It was otherwise scratching my paper.

Ez's will always have a special place in my heart though as they were the first easels I used in when I took photography in High School.