Space needed for 8 x 10 enlarger?

[hcm]

I am moving into a new house and will be claiming a part of the basement for a dark room. I need to know how much space I will need for a home made enlarger that could handle 8 X 10 negatives. The problem I face is that I will need to stake out a claim for the necessary space early and defend it against all competing uses (wife, child).

I would like to be able to make prints up to 16 by 20 comfortably and perhaps occasionally prints up to 24 x 30. I have been promised (but do not yet have) a 360mm enlarger lens and I can mount it on an 8 X 10 Toyo attached to an appropriate light source and negative holder neither of which have yet been designed.

Thanks in advance.

HCM
I was hoping someone would be able to point me towards appropriate formulae for calculating the distance I will need between the negative and the paper.

 

[mhulsman]

HCM,

Look at this thread Durst L1840 Enlarger 8x10 10x10--Everything you wanted to know...
You need height, height and height, or if you are printing horizontally about 3 meters.

My 10x10 enlarger (L184 with CLS1840 head) is in the basement.
I had to remove my fixed stairs to host the enlarger.

 

[Ian C]

Enlarging 8” x 10” negatives with a 360mm lens is impractical for anything but a horizontal enlarger, unless you’re making modest sized prints or if you have a very tall enlarger (some Saltzman enlargers have 11 foot columns).

To make a 16” x 20” print you’ll likely project at least a 17” wide image. That makes the magnification about 2.21X.

That requires 1678.5mm from negative to print distance with a 360mm lens.


For a 24” x 30” print, you need the projection at least 25” wide for a magnification of about 3.26X.

That requires 2002.9mm negative to print distance.

 

[ic-racer]

I agree with Ian on the 360mm; I use mine just for wall projection.

One thing to realize is that even though a 4x5 enlarger is smaller than an 8x10 enlarger, when sitting on a table top,it has a tall column. For both the 8x10 floormount and 4x5 tabletop enlargers, the heads go right up to the ceiling.

 

[hcm]

Thanks all

HCM

 

[rjmeyer314]

I have an 8x10 Elwood that I use as a vertical enlarger. The above folks are correct that you can't get big enlargements using a 360mm enlarging lens. When I got my Elwood about 25 years ago it came with a Kodak 10" enlarging Ektanon. I could get fairly large prints (20x24) on the baseboard, but not the 30"x40" prints I wanted. I also couldn't get prints as sharp as I wanted. I brought a 360mm Schneider Componon and was shocked how small my prints were. The Schneider got used for exactly one printing session and then I went back to the Ektanon. Ultimately I found that a Nikon 210mm Fax Nikkor would cover 8x10 negatives and give me much larger prints. Right now I'm using a 180mm Repromaster. It covers 8x10 and I can get 30"x40" prints on the baseboard (actually I could get bigger prints, but that is the biggest size I can easily handle) when I have the enlarger head way up. The sharpness is great.