Saunders easels framing accuracy

ediz7531 · Sunday at 11:51 PM

I’m wondering what im doing wrong here.

Saunders easels are universally praised. They are sturdily made for sure, but I’m a little surprised at the inaccuracy of the framing placement.
For example take the screenshot of a 7.5” x 7.5” framing I traced on 8x10 RC Pearl on a UA1620 easel.
While the frame size is indeed approximately 7.5x7.5, it’s really off centered.
I’m aware that the paper needs to go all the way to the left along the paper slot, and that I need to make sure it’s properly slotted.
And yet the left edge of the trace is off by 50% or so (not .25” from the paper’s edge like it should be), and similarly for the right edge.
The top and bottom edges are more reasonably placed, although still around 5% off.

F4U · Monday at 12:51 AM

I've never seen a multi bladed easel that was accurate. There's always a non-parallel blade, or a side that was not equal. And it's made worse that 8x10 inches for instance is never a dead perfect 8x10. Something's always going to be off. And 5%?? You can forget that. Unless you have a drafting or light table with a T square and triangle, so you can cut masks out of printer's masking paper, also known as offset printers stripping paper to lay on top of your print paper before closing the easel. Notnnig wrong with the easel you have. You can buy a thousand easels and they'll all be off.

ediz7531 · Monday at 1:29 AM

F4U said:
I've never seen a multi bladed easel that was accurate. There's always a non-parallel blade, or a side that was not equal. And it's made worse that 8x10 inches for instance is never a dead perfect 8x10. Something's always going to be off. And 5%?? You can forget that. Unless you have a drafting or light table with a T square and triangle, so you can cut masks out of printer's masking paper, also known as offset printers stripping paper to lay on top of your print paper before closing the easel. Notnnig wrong with the easel you have. You can buy a thousand easels and they'll all be off.

Thanks. The paper does measure 8x10 spot on.
I don’t have issues aligning the blades to be parallel with reasonable accuracy.

pbromaghin · Monday at 1:32 AM

Maybe a precision-cut mounting card instead of an easel?

F4U · Monday at 1:47 AM

By now ediz has learned ruler markings on a easel don't mean a whole lot. Once again, what I'd do is make a mask on a drafting or light table with a t square, triangle, and exacto knife to lay on top of the print paper before closing the easel. Yes, it will be a bit of trial and error cutting your masking paper just right. but once you've made one, you're set. As long as you use that one brand of paper, logically all border will be straight and equal. After 58 years in the graphic arts and photography business, nothing is perfect till you MAKE it perfect. No easel at any price is going to give you that.

David Brown · Monday at 1:38 PM

I use graph paper at the same size as the printing paper. I have used store-bought and papers I have made myself with the computer. I set up the blades with the graph paper, and then when I put the photo paper in, it works every time. One doesn't need graph paper, one can simply make up papers with the outline of a given print size and line up the blades to that.

MattKing · Monday at 1:50 PM

After a short while, you get used to how your easel's scales "perform". They tend to be out a consistently small amount, which is easy to recall.
For my most commons setups, I use something like the graph paper setups referred to earlier in the thread to set the blades the way I want them, and then add a small black mark to the scales to serve as a reference for future use.
The only real challenge is when I use someone else's easel in their darkroom.

Pieter12 · Monday at 5:28 PM

I draw the image size on the back of a sheet of fiber or RC paper with a fine Micron pen, making sure the guidelines are square and positioned as I want it. Then I put it in the easel and line up the blades to my guides. Once everything is where it needs to be, I tape the blades together with gaffer's tape.

I also have a number of gridded sheets cut to print sizes the I use to line up horizons or the verticals on buildings when needed.

ic-racer · Monday at 9:09 PM

18 years ago I got a like-new Beseler 16x20 in which the vertical scale sticker is applied 1/8" off. I set the vertical blades, then simply move both 1/8" down. Problem solved x 18 years.

Saunders easels framing accuracy

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