A few years ago the planets aligned and I managed to grab 3 working Beseler 45MXT enlargers with various heads, lenses, etc. for a song on my local classifieds. One of them has been in use in my darkroom since then, and the others in storage.
I have a good friend about to take the plunge into large format, and his enlarger won't handle 4x5, so I figured I'd hook him up. Problem is, I'm in UT and he's in GA.
So I need to figure out how to get it to him (including the condenser head). Obviously the chassis can be removed from the baseboard, the head from the chassis, and I believe with some finangling, I could get the negatives stage off the chassis as well. So aside from the head, the whole thing can be made reasonably flat.
But the baseboard is quite heavy, and the condenser head both heavy and fragile.
Has anyone pulled this off before? How did you go about it?
I have a good friend about to take the plunge into large format, and his enlarger won't handle 4x5, so I figured I'd hook him up. Problem is, I'm in UT and he's in GA.
So I need to figure out how to get it to him (including the condenser head). Obviously the chassis can be removed from the baseboard, the head from the chassis, and I believe with some finangling, I could get the negatives stage off the chassis as well. So aside from the head, the whole thing can be made reasonably flat.
But the baseboard is quite heavy, and the condenser head both heavy and fragile.
Has anyone pulled this off before? How did you go about it?