Problem with Royal Easel

[stwb]

I'm having some issues with a Royal brand easel. The easel seems to be a standard 2 blade type. In other words 2 blades are adjustable and 2 sides of the easel are fixed. The fixed sides are bevelled. When I put paper under the easel, the blades lie flat but the fixed sides don't lie flat (they sit a mm or two above the paper) and light gets underneath when exposing the paper, ruining the border. Has anyone used these Royal brand easels? Is there a DIY fix to this issue? Should I just shell out the bucks for a premium easel?
Thanks.

 

[srs5694]

I'm not familiar with that brand, but I've got a Meopta easel that uses a plastic pad between the main body of the easel and the paper. I don't really know why it's there, but if it were removed I'm sure problems similar to those you describe would result. Perhaps you just need to jury-rig something similar -- perhaps a few sheets of photo paper glued together would do the job....

 

[stwb]

Hmm, that makes me wonder if the easel is supposed to have a plastic pad of some sort. I got the easel along with the rest of my darkroom equipment for free. Perhaps there is another piece that goes between but it got lost in the shuffle. Thanks for the response, I'll try to rig something together.

 

[cowanw]

Maybe a button rare earth magnet.
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=32065&cat=1,42363,42348

 

[stwb]

Thanks Bill. I was thinking about magnets, but I didn't know if I could get one strong enough. The ones you linked to look pretty damn strong. I think I'll try it out. I also found that when closing the easel there is a small metal flap that falls on the paper before the frame hits the paper. This metal flap is spring loaded and looks to be pushing the frame off the paper a bit. I took this spring out and it seemed to help a bit. Now I think those magnets might be in order. Thanks again for the replies!