Having scored a couple of useful parts off flea bay I've got a bit of time to start nailing them together into an upgrade from my (also fleabay sourced) Devere 54. The 54 has been good; it's allowed enlarging of 5x4s where before I could only go to 6x6, but the focus mechanism makes me have to adopt a weird arm up look down stance whilst looking through the grain focuser. Also I can take 5x7 but not print them with the 54. So an upgrade was desired, preferably with 8x10 potential for future.
What I got was a Devere 108, a really really old 108. It has wheels and chains to move the lamp house and lens stage independently so arms are down at the print board level when making adjustments and I'llnot have to do yoga poses to focus! Yay!
Also in the deal was a lamp house/filter draw/condenser unit, of indeterminate vintage but also of Devere manufacture.
I successfully converted the 54 from cold cathode to work off an LED source (actually overly bright) and the first incarnation of this Frankenstein will use this light source to get me going.
This poor fevered mind has conjured up the idea that the condenser lamp-house/filter draw turned upside down, ditch the condenser and put on LED's will do something. The filter draw looks almost identical to the 54 negative draw so I'll convert it to hold the negs (its huge so should take 8x10s in the future).
I'll get some pics together to illustrate my thoughts and how everything is getting nailed together. More soon!
Rob
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