Hello Cor,
The paper I'm using is the wonderful Emaks glossy graded. I'm hoping it's a temporary manufacturing glitch in the order I had. It tones to a beautiful purple brown in selenium and the price is right.
My enlarger is a Beseler 45. I removed the baseboard and baseboard attachement arms. I then built a narrow shelf to support the chasis up a bit higher. I placed the shelf as high on the wall as I could without having the head hit the ceiling at maximum height. The shelf is probably 12" above my countertop. This is great also because now that my countertop is free of the enlarger, it extends under the enlarger to accomodate moving a 20x24 easel around freely and also I can put items under this shelf.
The work "countertop" section is removable for when I make prints larger than 20"x24". I framed it with 2x4 lumber and topped it with medium density fiberboard, which is thick, smooth and does not warp. The countertop section is fairly heavy but I have a carrying handle on the underside of it so I can slide it out and move it from the room. So when I remove the countertop I get maybe another 18" to 24" to the second level surface. With a 135 lens (and maybe a 150, haven't checked) I can make up to a 32x40.
In a small darkroom dispensing 42" wide paper from the roll, with it's tendancy to curl back up, is the hard part to do alone, but I'm a stuborn SOB. I found out it's frustrating to take the roll out of the bag and box and replace it every time you want to make another exposure. So what I did is make a paper safe box with a hinged drop-down door. You could mount this on the wall or else facing you right at the lower work surface like I did. There is a large wooden dowel inside it, onto which you put the tube of paper so that it dispenses out like paper towels! Just open the safe box door, pull out the paper you want and tack it down (it curls like crazy) and use a utility knife and a straight edge to cut a piece off. This lower work surface that you'll be enlarging onto is topped with homesote so you can put tacks in it. Also helpful are pieces of flat 1" aluminum stock as easel blades, which double as paper-cutting straight edges as well.
It would probably be easier to take a few pics of the way my pea brain has figured to do it than to try to explain it. I'm really just getting started with this but there are several tricks and tips. Let me know if you're serious about it and I'll get you some pics. Now that I'm comfortable scrolling paper I discovered that it's perfectly fine to use a couple quarts of solution in a rain gutter and just scroll it immediately above the gutter. I have a 6 foot sink and I can do large prints in gutters more easily than 20x24's in trays.
Mark
.. I am afraid my darkroom is too small for such adventures (my enlarger is realy crammed in a small space, max width would be 60cm). Emaks is made by EFKE, right? If you dig through this forum you'll find many reports on glitches with coating of EFKE products (admittingly mostly film), I hade my share with funny holes on PL100 film)
