It followed me home... can I keep it?

JBrunner · Oct 21, 2007

Found this lost soul looking for a home. It is now snugly tucked into the darkroom, and undergoing cleaning/renovation. It's a Beseler 5x7MVT.
The price was right... "please haul this away". Most everything works, except the four lights surrounding the lower stage. What they do, IDK.
When I get this thing lined up, I plan on using it to enlarge my 6x17's... finally.

naturephoto1 · Oct 21, 2007

What, no color head?

Rich

David A. Goldfarb · Oct 21, 2007

Hmmm... Maybe they used it as a copy stand, and that's what the four lights were for. Omega D-series enlargers could be converted easily for 4x5" copy work with a film back attachment with a mirror to see the groundglass that fit in place of the head and a lensboard that included a secondary bellows. I don't know about this one.

JBrunner · Oct 21, 2007

Well, the four lamps are inside the bellows, or rather just above the lower stage, between the two bellows, set in a square, one to each side, just above that carrier. They seem to be OEM, rather than an add on.

JBrunner · Oct 21, 2007

naturephoto1 said:
What, no color head?

Rich

If you can find me one that fits.......

Pinholemaster · Oct 21, 2007

We have one of those in the college darkroom where I teach. Just takes up room. No one uses it.

Enjoy.

dphill · Oct 22, 2007

I've got one of those out in the garage right now (needs work)!
The four lamps are for the vignetting feature. Good luck if you have the parts.
I was going to do the same as you (print 6x17), but now that I have a Crown Graphic, I can use it for 4x5 too!

Dan

JBrunner · Oct 22, 2007

It's cleaned up, and functioning. I won't be using the vignetting feature, so I just pulled the lamps. I need to fashion a negative carrier, and devise some sort of filter scheme. I will probaly need to filter below the lens, and I've not done that before. Anybody know a good solution, that doesn't involve screwing things on and off? Another option would be to use gel filters in the slot above the neg carrier, but they would have to be about 8x8" or so. perhaps if I mounted some gel to white plex, in place of the diffuser.... I think rosco might make gels that would do the trick. I only need the hardest and softest, for split printing.

Lee L · Oct 22, 2007

In The Variable Contrast Printing Manual, Anchell recommends the Rosco #68 Sky Blue and #389 Chroma Green for split filter printing. I believe some papers might print lower contrast with a Straw filter, but I'd have to look that up. At $5.50 each for 20 x 24 inch filters, that's a reasonable price and multiple back-ups.

I've use the #68 and #389 with excellent results on Ilford MG.

Lee

Robert Hall · Oct 22, 2007

Is that an enlarger or a mind control machine?

(looks like you made it in one piece)

TheFlyingCamera · Oct 22, 2007

Actually it looks a bit like something from the props department at the BBC tv studios circa 1983 (Think Dr. Who/Daleks/k-9/etc). I almost expect it to grow wheels and start following Tom Baker around, saying blindingly obvious things in a very annoying faux cyber-voice.

Removed Account · Oct 22, 2007

He'd have to be careful not to get his scarf sucked up by that big hose!

What the heck is that for anyways? It looks like the hose attachments for the central vacuum system at my folks' place.

- Justin

srs5694 · Oct 22, 2007

TheFlyingCamera said:
Actually it looks a bit like something from the props department at the BBC tv studios circa 1983 (Think Dr. Who/Daleks/k-9/etc). I almost expect it to grow wheels and start following Tom Baker around, saying blindingly obvious things in a very annoying faux cyber-voice.

I recently re-watched the entire run of Space: 1999, and I'm pretty sure I spotted several enlargers used as prop scientific instruments in various episodes. I couldn't identify any specific models, though. None of them talked, to the best of my recollection. ;-)

Sirius Glass · Oct 22, 2007

I carefully studied the photgraph in the OP and noticed a really handy outdoor light at the top of the enlarger post ...

... or is that were you put the safe light bulb??

Steve

dphill · Oct 22, 2007

Air is pulled from the lamp house, down the column and out the bottom of the column. For cooling. Stock lamp is 300 watts.

Dan

JBrunner · Oct 22, 2007

Yeah, the hose as shown is disconnected. It goes in the periscope lookin port at the top of the hair dryer er.. lamphouse. Turned it on and some really interesting things came out. Don't know what they were, but a couple of them scurried away....

DavePEI · Oct 28, 2007

Strays, or Do you get to Keep it!

Hi All:

Now, why, oh why don't strays like this follow me home

Nice find.

Dave

Ronald Moravec · Nov 2, 2007

You need to back the truck all the way to the darkroom for that monster!

TheFlyingCamera · Nov 2, 2007

JBrunner said:
Yeah, the hose as shown is disconnected. It goes in the periscope lookin port at the top of the hair dryer er.. lamphouse. Turned it on and some really interesting things came out. Don't know what they were, but a couple of them scurried away....

TRIBBLES!!!!!!

It followed me home... can I keep it?

JBrunner

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