Is my horizontal enlarger setup logical??

[redshift]

I'm working with a home made 8x10 enlarger. It's mounted horizontal on a Hercules tripod with lots of geared adjustments. It's not as easy to use as a vertical enlarger but it's what I have.

Is my alignment procedure logical? (1) I've attached magnets to my Versalab laser so that I can attach it to the center of the easel. (2) With the lens removed I bounce the laser off the glass negative holder, I adjust the light source/negative stage until the reflected laser dot aligns with the source. (3) I put a reflector on the lens and adjust until the reflected dot again aligns with source. The last picture shows the reflection ALMOST aligned.

[jp]

I've done pretty much the same thing to successfully align my 4x5 enlarger, but I used a laser torpedo level instead of the versalab. I put a mirror in place of the negative holder and adjusted alignment without the lens. Then put a mirror on the front of the lens to adjust the lens mounting alignment. You want to make sure your rail is level too, otherwise you'll be tinkering with your enlarger alignment to compensate for errors there; you could do that by shooting the laser parallel to the rail. If your tripod ends up not being ideal, I bet a dewalt miter saw stand would make a good base for your enlarger.

[Drew Wiley]

Wobbly Plan A versus Plan B, even wobblier. I'd build a solid cabinet for it with steel sheave rollers integrated with parallel floor tracks. But per alignment, pull the cells of your enlarger lens and stop the aperture as far down as possible, so when the laser beam hits the easel mirror, it has only a tiny opening to get thru. Versa Lab is so-so, but a reasonable start. And use a decent machinist's level or something otherwise seriously made. Cheap levels are a waste of time. Another minor issue is that those Saunders easel backs aren't necessarily dead flat. I've got several of them. It's best to temporarily mount a stiff truly flat board in there for the laser, or at least check the consistency of the yellow part of the easel corner to corner, side-to-side with a good straightedge first. When it comes to alignment, never take anything for granted. You're also going to have dimensional issues with what appears to be unsealed wood components to your rig, but
that's any easy fix. Overall, you're off to a good start and no doubt some wonderful printing sessions.

[ic-racer]

Alignment method looks good, that is the way I do it. You will have to decide how difficult it was to establish alignment each time and weight that against the trouble of making a permanent track on the floor.

Although it looks like you are making a small enlargement, but if you do make big ones on the wall, the alignment to the wall becomes less important. That is to say, if you can maintain the standards on the camera aligned to itself (lens to negative holder) you don't have to be so careful aligning to the wall. Think of having your standards parallel when taking pictures and how it is not that hard to get a billboard in focus, you can do it by eye.

[Drew Wiley]

Once one gets serious with a big vac wall easel or whatever, it does help to start with everything precisely aligned to begin with. After that you can tweak your
front standard movements a bit if needed. And if you end up needing a bigger faster enlargeing lens to reduce printing times, there are distinct advantages to having a geared P-style front end rather than the F-style which seems to be the case in the picture. Just something to keep in mind down the road.

[redshift]

Thanks all! Sounds like I have a cobbled together system that is pretty decent for occasional 8x10 printing. I can see the value of a sturdy cabinet and rails on the floor and well within my ability. I guess I should bite that bullet. I'm using the rear standard of an F so that I could use the focusing rack. I've got a P standard that I could press into service. I can see how that would help with lens alignment without disturbing the negative stage alignment. I'm using a Rodagon 300mm f5.6, is that a reasonable choice?

[Drew Wiley]

Yes, you've cobbled together the basics. That's a good lens for general use, but a P front would add a bit more insurance against vibration. I'd try printing a few things with your system as is, just to spot the weak links, then improve as needed. Floor rails make it very convenient for resizing images, larger or smaller.

[Peter De Smidt]

Looks good. In addition to what others have written, heat sinks work better if run vertically. More importantly if your light source isn't bigger than your negative, you will likely get significant falloff at the edges of the negative. On my scanner, I use a 6x8" light source for 4x5" film.

[redshift]

Thanks Peter. I should have thought about heat flow before I ordered the heat sink cut to size. Fortunately it doesn't even get warm. There is no reason I can't mount it vertical. I can do that when I rebuild with a cabinet and rails. A lot of work went into getting the light even. I worked with Cemil from Modern Enlarger Lamps on the design. Tried several layouts with reflectors and diffusers, getting close but not perfect. The power source was plenty big so adding a few more LEDs provided very even illumination. I was hoping Cemil would show me how to make it VC like the one he made for my 4x5 but we never got to that point.

Looks good. In addition to what others have written, heat sinks work better if run vertically. More importantly if your light source isn't bigger than your negative, you will likely get significant falloff at the edges of the negative. On my scanner, I use a 6x8" light source for 4x5" film.

[redshift]

Resizing is a bit of a PITA.That will push me to the cabinet and rails very quickly. What do you use for rails? I was thinking of angle iron attached to the floor point up V belt type wheels or round rails with wheels hitting it at 10 and 2 oclock. Angle iron sounds easiest.

Yes, you've cobbled together the basics. That's a good lens for general use, but a P front would add a bit more insurance against vibration. I'd try printing a few things with your system as is, just to spot the weak links, then improve as needed. Floor rails make it very convenient for resizing images, larger or smaller.