DeVere Enlarger Adjustment

[Luis-F-S]

Have a quick question on my DeVere 5108. I've aligned it correctly, but noticed that I can "rack" the baseboard from left to right if I'm not careful. It's not much but enough to get the baseboard out of alignment. If I rack it back to the left where I aligned it, it goes back into alignment. I assume this little bit of play is due to the raising/lowering mechanism. Has anyone else noticed this? My enlarger has had very little use since it did not come from a commercial lab but a photo studio, so it has almost no wear. Am I correct or is there an adjustment to the chains to take up this slack? Thank you all! Luis

[Luis-F-S]

Ok, I know out of the 74 people who have read this, at least ONE has to have a Devere DVF enlarger. Can you check your table and see if there is any up/down play on the outside? Thanks.

[Mick Fagan]

Luis, I did read your request, I wasn't sure and didn't have time to look. Just very recently I purchased a Salthill alignment tool for my enlarger and went through the process of aligning my enlarger very carefully. This included aligning the baseboard, which I replaced with a home cut one from melamine covered chipboard.

I do drop the board occasionally, not that often, but sometimes. So, I wondered after re-reading your plea. I have just been into the darkroom and swung my baseboard, left to right, meaning the left side swings up a bit, or the right side swings up a bit. I then left it centred and quickly re-checked the alignment, spot on.

I've been using my 4x5 free standing DeVere for about 15 years of private ownership. Rather interestingly, I purchased this enlarger brand new for the business I was working for, around 1982. I ended up with it when the company that purchased it from my former work went under in 1999 for a fraction, and I mean fraction, of the cost.

In the mean time, it has had a pretty hard life and it, along with the other DeVere enlargers had their drop tables running up and down, probably daily, or close to that, in their industrial working life.

Um, just what is a DeVere DVF enlarger?

Mick.

[Peter De Smidt]

The table of my 504 does flex a bit if you push on it near the edges. I never let it worry me, as I tend to make small prints in the middle of the board. If it did bother me, I'd put a support under each of the corners.

[IanG]

The metal assembly should be very rigid, I missed your post earlier Luis. Is the baseboard bolted down on it's frame ? Mine came with only 4 nuts and they are used to align it with the head etc, luckily I have some wing nuts (same thread) to hold it firmly in place. I've yet to fit these since building my new darkroom and the baseboard will move slightly.

Ian

[Luis-F-S]

Thank you all who responded. I've been out of town without access to the web. Mick, DVF I think means Devere Vertical Floor enlarger. This as opposed to the DVB for the bench model, or DVW for the wall mounted model.

Greg, both the baseboard and the metal assembly below it move together slightly, as the baseboard is bolted to the frame with the wing nuts.

Ian, what moves slightly is a slight rotation where the handwheels go into the base. It's not much, but enough to throw the alignment off if your not careful. I suspect I may be able to tighten the chains a bit and take up the slack, but it also may not be enough to worry about. I was just wondering if this is common to the floor enlargers which I suspect it is. L

[Luis-F-S]

There is a "block" under the baseboard that rides up and down on the frame. I'm sure there must be an adjustment in order to take up any slack which I'm guessing is a bit loose on mine. Does anyone have a Service Manual? Is there one available? Anyone ever adjusted this? L

[axs810]

Luis-F-S would you mind posting some photos? I don't know what you mean by "rack" the baseboard....I might not be able to offer much help but I'm interested in trying to understand whats going on just in case for future knowledge :)

[Mick Fagan]

[QUOTE=Luis-F-S;1248222]Thank you all who responded. I've been out of town without access to the web. Mick, DVF I think means Devere Vertical Floor enlarger. This as opposed to the DVB for the bench model, or DVW for the wall mounted model.

Luis, I see, that certainly makes sense. Down here I have only ever heard of them as being either a Freestanding unit with a drop table, or bench model which obviously does not have a drop table. Either of which can be wall mounted, firmly or just at the top of the column, I've seen both variants.

That vertical block is designed to ensure the base board stays as close as possible in alignment to the head. I do believe you can adjust things to effect a minimal movement, but when that is done the baseboard is almost impossible to move down and/or up. If alignment becomes an issue, you could freeze the baseboard in the uppermost, or second uppermost position and keep it there with supposedly perfect alignment.

To be honest, every freestanding DeVere enlarger I've ever used has had a slightly loose baseboard, in the context of what we are talking about here. The enlarger we did the most extreme enlargements on was a 5x7 unit, it had a slightly wider baseboard, about 1m wide and was generally used for extreme 135 and 4x5 cropped enlargements. Often the baseboard was on the bottom stop with the head near the ceiling and the operator on his knees focusing with an assistant locking and unlocking the two focusing locks. One used to get grain sharp prints across the baseboard with that enlarger, it was being pushed to it's extreme.

For bigger stuff, either total size or cropped prints, we usually switched to the 8x10 and 10x10 horizontal mural units where life was certainly easier. The three 8x10 vertical enlargers, 2 x DeVere and one by Durst were interesting to use, mainly because all three were in our tiniest darkrooms, we never knew why.

Mick.

[Luis-F-S]

That vertical block is designed to ensure the base board stays as close as possible in alignment to the head. I do believe you can adjust things to effect a minimal movement, but when that is done the baseboard is almost impossible to move down and/or up. If alignment becomes an issue, you could freeze the baseboard in the uppermost, or second uppermost position and keep it there with supposedly perfect alignment.

To be honest, every freestanding DeVere enlarger I've ever used has had a slightly loose baseboard, in the context of what we are talking about here.

I'll probably tighten the block in one position since I seldom drop the table; I just don't print that large. I had a feeling that there was probably some inherent "looseness" to the baseboard due to the way it's attached to the frame. KHB says there should not be any, but that may be in a perfect world. Thanks. L

[Luis-F-S]

Luis-F-S would you mind posting some photos? I don't know what you mean by "rack" the baseboard....I might not be able to offer much help but I'm interested in trying to understand whats going on just in case for future knowledge :)

Here is a shot of the block below the baseboard. This block rides the baseboard and focusing handles (seen on either side) up and down the frame. The rod above the block unlocks the baseboard so it can be raised and lowered. It just pins into a hole on the frame. In my enlarger, it is possible to "rack" the baseboard left/right so that the block rotates slightly. I'm sure there are adjustments on this block from the back of the enlarger, I just haven't had a chance to open it up yet. L

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