Omega B22 -two questions

[jay moussy]

I found two Omega B22s locally , a whole one, and one without the lamp head, but with the condenser assembly.
No negative carriers, but with the odd-size lens boards.

The whole working one:
Any known common adjustments, or gotchas needed on these?
I did find the manual, and at first glance, the negative plane is parallel to base board.

The partial one:
Should I bother making some sort of lamp house, or keep it as parts donor for the other?
Could it be turned into a copy stand?
Parted out into a small monorail 6x6 camera?

 

[darkroommike]

Have fun, get a couple of spare lamps, and Omega made an adapter that converted the B-66, etc. into a copy stand, it was, essentially, a T-flange, on a carrier board, add a T-mount to fit your camera, and Bob's Your Uncle, no reason it wouldn't work on a B-22.

 

[DWThomas]

I haven't paid much attention to the B-22 as I wanted to go up to 6x9, but I think it's possible you might turn up a lamphouse occasionally on ePrey. I picked up one for my B-8 with the deluded notion I might some day do a homebrew LED illuminator. I think some people that are trying to get rid of an enlarger part them out to avoid shipping something as unwieldy as a complete unit. (The basket of parts may actually yield more money than an assembled unit too.)

 

[Jim Jones]

I used a B-22 for years until a darkroom fire destroyed it. Nice enlargers. I wouldn't try to make a monorail or copy stand out of one. There are enlargers that are easier and better to convert into copy standards. A 75 Watt lamp in such a small housing does run hot. I used a variable transformer to reduce the lamp voltage for composing and focusing. Even a few volt reduction extends lamp life considerably.

 

[John Galt]

I have pieces parts if you need anything

 

[jay moussy]

@Jim Jones, I have an (very) old Variac that could do the trick!

I have pieces parts if you need anything

Well I have the Omega specific odd-size lens boards, and was planning on making rough thin wood copies to accommodate the standard 39mm mount.

For the missing lamp house on the second one, I was thinking of making one, with an LED bulb for low heat.
It just happens that the typical large metal can of tomato sauce (last night's manicotti!) can slip over the condenser housing. Hmm...