sadly tales

[plaubel]

Yes, I am guilty - I killed a famous machine !

I won a Hohlux Elektron enlarger at ebay in last december, for nothing than 1 Euro.
The description had been amazing :

- negative size : 30x40 cm ( 12x16" )

- it's weight : 840 KG

- big :-)

Yes, the wright thing for my knew old, 30x40cm Reisekamera !


It stood 275 km from my homebase, in a cellar, but with an elevator there.

First action in place : three not so weak men tried to pull the enlarger, because it stood in a corner.
I have to say - nothing happened, really nothing. Not 1 mm...

Ours later,after replacing some heavy elements and in using some Sumo-tricks, the enemy felt down without destroing anything.
Know, we were able to amputate the big foot, nearly 100 Kg himself.

Altogether, we've lost a lot of time by waiting for missing, but necessary tools, by rebuilding big windows ( you may imagine, that normal doors were too small), and after some painfully ours, we had to give up totally.
There has been no chance to bring the enlarger into the elevator. Too dangerous to me.
The rest of the system has been to long, and, with more than 300 Kg, to heavy for lying him diagonal, which had been the only way in fact of the short and flat elevator.

So I only rescued the head and the light system ( 8x 1000 Watts Xenon burner), the bellows and the negative room ( some kind of Pizza ofen), the amazing electronic shutter, the separate userpult ( beam me up, Scotty!) and the really big vacuum ground plate.

To the main system of this terrible enlarger I sadly have to say : R.I.P. -
It's know a case for a metal specialist with his burning tools.

I am planning to rebuild the parts as a horizontal enlarger, in using a repro camera, which will come in in some weeks.

Sad, but hopeful otherwise,
Ritchie

[Richard Wasserman]

That's quite a machine! Did they first put in place and then construct the building around it? :rolleyes:

[plaubel]

I have heard from the seller, that there were 5 strong man bringing that beast down the cellar.

But for me, the main thing seemed to be:
Down, the elevator only has one door. Inside, there wheren't enough place for people and machine together..
Up, there are two doors, one each side. Enough space for moving.

So, bringing in must be more easy with two doors, for pulling out one door is enough.
But not the other way...

[John Kasaian]

It had an appointment with History. And kept it. Such is the case with us all.

[Vaughn]

Dang thing looks like it could enlarge electrons!

[Jim C.]

Sounds like you had tried to move it as a whole unit, why didn't you take it apart and move it in pieces ?

840 KG = 1851lbs. !
Bet that enlarger has no vibrations at all ;)

[Jody_S]

There's always a way. You needed a good old boy with a pickup truck and a couple of come-alongs. A few bars of Ivory soap, you can move anything.

[Roger Thoms]

There's always a way. You needed a good old boy with a pickup truck and a couple of come-alongs. A few bars of Ivory soap, you can move anything.

A few pieces of pipe and a johnson bar can be helpful too.

Roger

[Jon Shiu]

There's an appliance dolly that has two smaller wheels that swing down, allowing you to wheel something around at a 45 degree angle. Not big enough for 2000lbs, but 1000lbs would be possible.

Jon

[Jan Pedersen]

Don't forget a six pack or two, it always brings out a hero or two.

[Tin Can]

Sawzall and a lot of good blades.

My Fotar almost removed the seller's hand when he decided to wrap a cable around his fist and hold up a huge weight.

I thought it was going to be very bad, but a young man can be tough. Too tough, I bet he hurt for some time.

[Michael E]

There's always a way. You needed a good old boy with a pickup truck and a couple of come-alongs. A few bars of Ivory soap, you can move anything.

Sounds like a very American solution. I'm still trying to figure out to get the truck into the elevator to the basement, considerung that not even the enlarger fit in there.

[Jody_S]

Sounds like a very American solution. I'm still trying to figure out to get the truck into the elevator to the basement, considerung that not even the enlarger fit in there.

I'm Canadian.... I leave the pickup truck outside.... :p
Actually a mini-van in my case. I just moved a 2000lb (900Kg) toolroom lathe with the mini-van. By myself, using 2 old shipping crates, 2 milk cartons, 2 crowbars, assorted rope and chains, and one come-along. My last lathe was 5600lbs (2500Kg), I had to have a tow truck bring it to the house, but he dumped it in the middle of my lawn. It took me 2 days to move it into the garage and set it in it's place.

[Tin Can]

I'm Canadian.... I leave the pickup truck outside.... :p
Actually a mini-van in my case. I just moved a 2000lb (900Kg) toolroom lathe with the mini-van. By myself, using 2 old shipping crates, 2 milk cartons, 2 crowbars, assorted rope and chains, and one come-along. My last lathe was 5600lbs (2500Kg), I had to have a tow truck bring it to the house, but he dumped it in the middle of my lawn. It took me 2 days to move it into the garage and set it in it's place.

MM by MM, anything can be done.

Great job on rescuing old machinery, which is often better than new machinery.

[Larry Kellogg]

Oh. My. God. Figure out a way to give it to StoneNYC.

[Liquid Artist]

Don't forget a six pack or two, it always brings out a hero or two.
I was thinking that the OP must have given them the beer too early.
Pizza helps too.

[ic-racer]

You can move a house or bridge by taking it apart.

[Larry Kellogg]

I was thinking that the OP must have given them the beer too early.
Pizza helps too.

This reminds me of a scene in a Russian movie where a guy pays a bunch of other guys with vodka to hold up his roof. They don't hold the roof up for very long, LOL.

[plaubel]

A lot of strong people here, and good informations, too :-)
If struggling with the enlarger -where have you all been ?

No, my health is more worth to me than a great enlarger, which I then have to run without feet or hands. That's it.
Seemed to be a number to big for me.

Cheers,
Ritchie

[Larry Kellogg]

Ritchie,

You needed to post on here before you gave up on moving it, not after. I bet people on here would have helped move it for you, but it's not worth crippling yourself over, I agree.

Thanks for sharing that picture, I have never seen an enlarger of that size.

Best,

Larry

[plaubel]

Ritchie,

You needed to post on here before you gave up on moving it, not after.

Larry, that may be the point, and now it's too late, but I really have not expected such problems concerning the elevator.
I carried my lathe and other heavy stuff before, and I never have had such problems.
Maybe I just have a bad run thistime - some weeks ago I bought a Reisekamera 12x16", and it arrived with a totally broken groundglass...

Now I have to look forwards; I rescued some good stuff, and with this parts, some day a new enlarger will rise..

The size of this monster is some curious; in comparing with my Durst Laborator 138 with colourhead, it doesn't look as big as it's weight seems to promise.
Nearly the same heigth, but of cause bigger from left to right,nearly 110 cm without groundplate, , what depends in the electric coverage , some engines for moving and the big footplate.
The vacuum ground plate may have 100cmx130cm, so totally depth may be nearly 140cm.
But each part alone is big.

Cheers,
Ritchie

[Larry Kellogg]

Funny you mention the Durst 138, as I just got one and moved it quite easily, because of the way it breaks down. I also helped move someone's 184 and that was just about as easy. Too bad this thing was so difficult to move, and not designed to break down into manageable pieces.

[Jody_S]

A lot of strong people here, and good informations, too :-)
If struggling with the enlarger -where have you all been ?

No, my health is more worth to me than a great enlarger, which I then have to run without feet or hands. That's it.
Seemed to be a number to big for me.

Cheers,
Ritchie

I agree safety is always #1 concern. If you did not know how to move it safely, then you did the right thing when you left it.

[Jon Shiu]

There's an appliance dolly that has two smaller wheels that swing down, allowing you to wheel something around at a 45 degree angle. Not big enough for 2000lbs, but 1000lbs would be possible.

Jon

Here's a picture of the hand truck, in case anyone else needs one:
http://www.digitalbuyer.com/wesco-wrv-max-72-heavy-duty-1800-lb-load-72-h-appliance-hand-truck.html?gclid=Cj0KEQiAuMOlBRDf6_izz93n-pEBEiQAsJCJWtyIECUIrpkI0RfV-anAhwyNXFJkj7MzF465eEOuUIgaAjhl8P8HAQ

[Tin Can]

And just in case some don't know what a Johnson bar is. Here is a little one. I have used far longer ones at work. Big machines will move. I used to swap 2 ton engines myself with a chain fall.

http://www.grainger.com/product/Lever-Dolly-3KNA5?functionCode=P2IDP2PCP

[Larry Kellogg]

Kind of like, if you give me a lever, and a place to stand, I can move the world.

[plaubel]

This one looks good !

But 700 dollars...
At first, I asked the transporting company of the seller ( a photographer, who saddled into another house; they wanted to keep 1200 dollars for bringing it to me.
Not to bad for this job, but to much for me thistime.
Last weeks, I gavesome money for equipment like 2 big cameras, a framers edge...


Here's a picture of the hand truck, in case anyone else needs one:
http://www.digitalbuyer.com/wesco-wrv-max-72-heavy-duty-1800-lb-load-72-h-appliance-hand-truck.html?gclid=Cj0KEQiAuMOlBRDf6_izz93n-pEBEiQAsJCJWtyIECUIrpkI0RfV-anAhwyNXFJkj7MzF465eEOuUIgaAjhl8P8HAQ

[Larry Kellogg]

This one looks good !

But 700 dollars...
At first, I asked the transporting company of the seller ( a photographer, who saddled into another house; they wanted to keep 1200 dollars for bringing it to me.
Not to bad for this job, but to much for me thistime.
Last weeks, I gavesome money for equipment like 2 big cameras, a framers edge...

Are you still trying to retrieve the whole enlarger?

Could you rent the hand truck?

$1200 dollars does not sound so bad considering that you got it for a dollar. Can you put that on a credit card?

[plaubel]

Hi, Larry,


No, I don't want awake new expectations to me ;
having already seen the situation with this small elevator , I'm not interested anymore.
Next time, I will not do a cellar shopping :-)
If I would use credit cards, the transpoting company would be an alternative.

Regards,
Ritchie

[Aerial]

nice that some of it was salvaged. I know of 2 Wild rectifying enlargers that went straight to the scrapyard.

[Larry Kellogg]

nice that some of it was salvaged. I know of 2 Wild rectifying enlargers that went straight to the scrapyard.

Wild indeed! Sad to hear they've been scrapped.

[plaubel]

Yes, that is ugly, too.
What is the weight of such a Wild?

[Aerial]

Yes, that is ugly, too.
What is the weight of such a Wild?
It's heavy. We tried putting it on a bathroom scale and it crushed it.:p

[plaubel]

If you were able to put it on the scale, it can't be heavy :-)