Super Chromega D color maintenance question

[Kawaiithulhu]

I'm reconditioning an omega enlarger with the Super Chromega D dichoric ii head for B&W use and I have two questions:

The 4x5 mixing chamber is in very good physical condition but do I need to worry about the plastic diffusion panel at the bottom aging, or will that last for decades?

I should probably be more worried about the dichoric panels than the plastic, is there a good way to know if they've deteriorated? They do filter proper colors, I just can't eyeball whether the purity is up to snuff from the baseboard being lit up.

 

[RauschenOderKorn]

The main maintenance part are the liners inside the mixing chamber. These are recommended to be exchanged on a regular basis.
The diffusion panel: for B&W a visual inspection should be good enough
The filters: The color head I have is rather old but still running on original filters. The filters should not degrade, but to be sure, you´d have to measure. Eyeball won´t do. Unless you have particular reason to be suspicious, I´d give it a try and test if minimum and maximum contrast are satisfactory. With a few test strips, it is easy to find out. If contrast is good, the filters are fine for B&W printing.

 

[RauschenOderKorn]

One side note: The maximum contrast 5 cannot always be achieved. Depending on your paper and you developer, a 3.5-4 can already be as good as it gets, even if the filters are in perfect condition. So it is a good idea to compare results between enlargers, too, and not just evalutate the absolute value.

 

[Kawaiithulhu]

good idea to compare results between enlargers

I went through my "box of stuff" and found my Ilford filters that aren't too old, I can use those to compare. Thanks for prodding my memory!
I didn't know about the mixing chamber liners, since I don't know how old this D5 is I'll replace those when I grab spare bulbs when I move this to its final spot.
Thanks!

 

[ic-racer]

Be careful with the bottom diffuser, any scratches on that can show in the prints.

The lamp socket might need to be replaced. Inspect all the wires for possible damage.

It was the older chromega head (pictured here) that had filters which needed replacing.

The newer Super Chromega II has dichroic filters. Be careful if you want to clean and inspect the mechanism. Unless you really know enlargers, tendency seems to be to re-assemble everything incorrectly and break the filters trying to clean them, based on what I have seen when repairing these.