Beseler MXII alignment/manual

[steve hartsfield]

I need to align my MXII, but I have no manual. Anybody wish to share their manual with me? I would greatly appreciate it. I am rebuilding my darkroom before being forced to go to the (dreaded) digital. BTW, Aristo is bankrupt, sold to Light Sources Inc..

[Brian Ellis]

If you're anything like me, except to process film you won't want to see the inside of a darkroom again once you become seriously involved with the dreaded digital. So I wouldn't worry about aligning an enlarger if you'll be doing this any time soon. But on the chance that you're not like me (:-)) and if no one else here provides more specific help, try Googling the name "Daryll (or maybe it's Daryl) Nicholas and see if he can help. This is a long shot because he's totally digital now but he wrote the manuals for the Beseler/Minolta 45M (?) color head and I believe some other Beseler products as well. He also took over some customer service functions for Beseler when they discontinued that head. He may have an enlarger manual around or know where you can find one.

[Peter Mounier]

Steve
I have the manual for the M series enlargers and there's only a partial page on alignment. I posted it here in case others can benefit.

Peter

http://www.morrobaygiclee.com/Alignment.pdf

[Eric Woodbury]

Then a miracle occurs and your enlarger is in perfect alignment.

The instructions are simple because there just aren't enough degrees of freedom to get perfect parallelism. I've had to add several adjusters to my enlarger to get better control. And one control point that isn't mentioned here is to shim the baseboard. Loosen those screws and put cardboard or pennies under the baseboard to adjust that to parallel with lens and neg.

[tgtaylor]

You can, or at least could, purchase a reprint of the Beseler manuals off ebay for about $8.

I assume that the MXII is pretty similar to the MXT. There are three points on the MXT for alignment: Left to right, front to back and the lens stage. Except for the lens stage, the manual gives detailed instructions on aligning the enlarger. You'll need 2wrenches: 11mm and 14mm. For the lens stage, Delta's Beseler Adjus lensboard works great and only cost $30. I use a Versalab laser alignment tool which, at ~ $200 is expensive but makes alignment a snap.

Other than placing pennies, etc under the easel to level it, you can also tape or glue cork or some other material to make it more permanent. Make sure, though, that the table the enlarger is sitting on is plumb.

Thomas

[dng88]

Try to align mine today. The negative and the lens stage does not stay parallel. I used the versalab parallel and it showed if I align one, the other one is off by an inch between the laser spot and its reflection. You can align one but not the other at the same time. How do one go from there? Any help would be much appreciated.

[Brian Ellis]

Then a miracle occurs and your enlarger is in perfect alignment.

The instructions are simple because there just aren't enough degrees of freedom to get perfect parallelism. I've had to add several adjusters to my enlarger to get better control. And one control point that isn't mentioned here is to shim the baseboard. Loosen those screws and put cardboard or pennies under the baseboard to adjust that to parallel with lens and neg.

Any reason why you wouldn't just shim the easel(s) rather than the baseboard? That's what I did. It seemed to work well and was a lot easier than shimming the basebaord (at least for me, I'm not particularly handy with tools).

[dng88]

The easel/baseboard and negative is aligned in seconds. It is the lens which is 1 inch off after the negative and baseboard/easel alignment. I am not sure as someone said that you can adjust it in some stage but some not. Some suggested to get the adjustable lens adapter which is about 30 each. Just wonder wherher is the way beseler goes. I tried shim it but it does not work after 2 hours. Even if it works, it is an issue as I do not want to spend too much time to check and align this.

Any advice?