Aligning Enlargers:
To align my Bessler 45mx I've done a couple of things.
>From the factory it is misaligned and I can't see how it could have ever
been properly aligned. I made an extended lens board by cutting a pice of
hardened masonite to the same size as the lensboard, drilling the
appropriate sixed hole and then making a sandwich like this.
BEssler lensboard, then squeezed foam weatherstriping and finally the new
masonite board with the lens. I connected the three pieces with Three 8/24
or similar small screws going from the bottom board to drilled & tapped
holes on the aluminum Bessler board.
This allows you to adjust the lens board indepent of the enlarger.
Next I leveled the enlarger base. Usually not a problem.
Then I aligned the enlarger neg stage with a small level (always rotate any
level 180 degrees to ensure accuracy)
Then I leveled the lens stage with the level on the front of the lens.
Like everything this is best accomplished with three hands.
ALIGNMENT PATTERNS for USE IN VERT AND HORIZON ENLARGERS:
Here's the part that actually applies to Rick's camera based horizontal
enlarger:
I made a pattern in Adobe Illustrator (though you can use anything from
Photoshop to maybe even Kid Pix) The pattern has lots of horizontal and
vertical lines and concentric circles. I printed it out to be just smaller
than 8x10" on glossy photo paper--for sharness and brightness.
Than I took the same pattern and scaled it down to 4x5 size, 6x7 and 35mm
and printed these on jet ink Transparency film.
When inserted into the enlarger and the easel these patterns should aligned
perfectly. If they don't you need to adjust and tweak.
A couple of things help. I put numbers in the corners of the pattern and
make sure that each number is projected right on top of itself--so that if
my printer or computer app has a problem it won't affect the result. Also
patterns or just grain or noise in the transparencies are great for
focusing.
This should work great in a horizontal enlarger which you can only use a
level in one dimension. The proof of my cheap and dirty method was my friend
John brought over a laser alignment tool and my enlarger was right on the
money.
Horizontal enlargers are also great for making really large prints. That
Rick's starts as a view camera is double plus good because can remove his
light source pop on his ground glass and algined everything using a mirror
taped to his easel wall.
Click
---William Nettles
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Nettles Photo / Imaging Site http://www.wgn.net/~nettles
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2001 12:11:41 -0600
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Cameramakers digest, Vol 1 #164 - 3 msgs
>
> The main advantage to horizontal projection for me was keeping the weight
> down and being able to disassemble the enlarger to store and move it easily.
> One difficulty, though, is setting it up to keep the lens plane, negative
> plane, and image plane all parallel. Use a plum bob to check and adjust the
> plane of the negative, lens, and projection surface. Project a large half
> tone pattern as a negative to visually estimate overall sharpness and the
> "square" from left to right.
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