Durst Vacuum Easel Question

[Gray Mitchell]

I recently got a Durst Laborator 184 with a vacuum easel. My only problem is that the unit did not come with the vacuum motor. What kind of vacuum will work with this system? The easel size is 25"x30" with a 21"x26" printing area. Also it came with an 8x10 glass negative holder (Nega205???). The system has built in 4-way masking...will this suffice for 4x5 work or will i have to purchase a 4x5 negative holder or some kind of mask? thanks everyone.

[resummerfield]

The glass neg holder will work fine. Use either the built-in masking blades, or a hand-cut mask from black paper.

I had a vacuum easel just like the one you mention. It came with a dedicated vacuum pump. I'm not sure how big a motor, but less than 1/2 hp. But I didn't use that pump; instead I hooked up our built-in house vac. It worked great, was quiet, and exhausted the air outside. So you could even use a small canister vac, like a shop vac. Just try and leave the vac outside the darkroom, or at least exhaust the air outside.

[Jim Ewins]

Gray, check with Jens Jensen - Jensen Optical at (503) 807 8803

[Cliff Baldwin]

Hi-glass negative carrier is ideal,since it retains the flatest negative for optimum sharpness.It will also accomodate all formats,but you will need matching condensors to step down the collimated light path.Condensor combinations used vary with lens choices.I prefer Shneider optics exclusively to address any problems.