Laser alignment

[cyrus]

I am using a Versalab laser alignment tool and sort of love/hate it.
I love it for the ease of determining enlarger misalignment; and I hate it for the ease of determining enlarger misalignment and then spending hours trying to get perfect alignment.

On my Dust 1840, things are almost perfect. The baseboard and the negative stage align perfectly ... which is good because I have no idea how I'd change that except to fiddle with the baseboard. However, the alignment of the baseboard and the lens is off slightly. I don't know what to do about that to keep all three aligned, but at least the error is consistent.

Now we get to my Omega D5xl 4x5 enlarger with the color head. Things are a lot different there. I manage to just about perfectly align things one day, and the next day they're totally off because, as best as I can determine, enlarger alignment gremlins break into my darkroom and re-misalign things. Grrrrr!

[bob carnie]

Do you have the column stabalized with steady arms.
If not each time you raise and lower you will introduce problems.
I can hang off the supports we have for the 4x5's and this does help tremendously.

I am using a Versalab laser alignment tool and sort of love/hate it.
I love it for the ease of determining enlarger misalignment; and I hate it for the ease of determining enlarger misalignment and then spending hours trying to get perfect alignment.

On my Dust 1840, things are almost perfect. The baseboard and the negative stage align perfectly ... which is good because I have no idea how I'd change that except to fiddle with the baseboard. However, the alignment of the baseboard and the lens is off slightly. I don't know what to do about that to keep all three aligned, but at least the error is consistent.

Now we get to my Omega D5xl 4x5 enlarger with the color head. Things are a lot different there. I manage to just about perfectly align things one day, and the next day they're totally off because, as best as I can determine, enlarger alignment gremlins break into my darkroom and re-misalign things. Grrrrr!

[BetterSense]

Have you determined your error tolerance on your measurement? If you attempt to adjust anything based on measurements, without knowing what the tolerances on the measurement is, and on how tolerance there is in the actual quantity being measured, you are not doing justice to the measurement. This goes for anything not just enlarger alignment. The first thing you should do once you get the ability to quantify anything is to quantify the amount of error that is tolerable. If you don't, you just end up arbitrarily setting the tolerance equal to your human ability to read the instrument.

For example, you might be trying to get the laser aligned so well that you can't perceive any misalignment in the beam. But that's not 'perfect' either...it's just equal to your ability to perceive the error. I guarantee if you could 'zoom up' or use a finer laser beam, or shoot the beam across the room to get more angular resolution, you would see that when you can't perceive any misalignment, it's still misaligned to some extent. Where do you draw the line? It might well be that you only have to align the laser dot to within a 1cm radius of the laser aperture to achieve acceptable alignment.

[cyrus]

Have you determined your error tolerance on your measurement? If you attempt to adjust anything based on measurements, without knowing what the tolerances on the measurement is, and on how tolerance there is in the actual quantity being measured, you are not doing justice to the measurement. This goes for anything not just enlarger alignment. The first thing you should do once you get the ability to quantify anything is to quantify the amount of error that is tolerable. If you don't, you just end up arbitrarily setting the tolerance equal to your human ability to read the instrument.

For example, you might be trying to get the laser aligned so well that you can't perceive any misalignment in the beam. But that's not 'perfect' either...it's just equal to your ability to perceive the error. I guarantee if you could 'zoom up' or use a finer laser beam, or shoot the beam across the room to get more angular resolution, you would see that when you can't perceive any misalignment, it's still misaligned to some extent. Where do you draw the line? It might well be that you only have to align the laser dot to within a 1cm radius of the laser aperture to achieve acceptable alignment.

Well, as long as the laser aperture and the red dot aligns when the enlarger head is at its lowest position, and continue to align while the enlarger head moves up to its highest position, I figure its pretty much aligned as well as I can humanely make it. On the Durst, that's the case when aligning the baseboard with the negative, which is really a testament to how well this thing is made. On the Omega, well, not quite. The dot can move up to 1 cm from the aperture, depending on how the Red Sox are doing.

[cyrus]

Do you have the column stabalized with steady arms.
If not each time you raise and lower you will introduce problems.
I can hang off the supports we have for the 4x5's and this does help tremendously.

You mean connect the enlarger to the wall? It is on the baseboard only right now, which itself was a problem since the lens stage was misaligned with the baseboard, and apparently there is no way to correct that except to put a shim under the enlarger column where it connects to the baseboard and re-tighten the screws that connect the column to the baseboard.

Once I got that right, I then fiddled with the 4 scews on the negative stage to get the negative stage aligned which was no easy task for one guy with two hands.

But each time I lower the lamphouse, it goes slightly out of whack. I discovered that my neg holders aren't perfectly flat either. See, Versalab! I didn't need to know this!

[bob carnie]

Yes to the wall
Once you have the sucker aligned top to bottom , attach the braces, this will act as a stabalizer for the column and unless you do this you will be aligning almost everytime you change the head height.
Omega sells the proper braces not sure where you would get them but they are really worth the price and effort.
I only use glass carriers, I haven't used the glassless carriers in 20 years as they really suck.
I have a tech who checks my alignment on a regular basis, I am using three of these enlarger, the durst and Deveer are much more solid in this regard
This would be the weakest point of the omega system, but with braces and glass carriers, life is much better.

You mean connect the enlarger to the wall? It is on the baseboard only right now, which itself was a problem since the lens stage was misaligned with the baseboard, and apparently there is no way to correct that except to put a shim under the enlarger column where it connects to the baseboard and re-tighten the screws that connect the column to the baseboard.

Once I got that right, I then fiddled with the 4 scews on the negative stage to get the negative stage aligned which was no easy task for one guy with two hands.

But each time I lower the lamphouse, it goes slightly out of whack. I discovered that my neg holders aren't perfectly flat either. See, Versalab! I didn't need to know this!

[bob carnie]

I am using a Laser Align 11 made by focal point in Florida, I also buy my glass from him, he has a sale on glass right now so I bought 8 combos of reg and An glass for a really good price.
He is a great guy and has a lot of Omega parts.

[cyrus]

I am using a Laser Align 11 made by focal point in Florida, I also buy my glass from him, he has a sale on glass right now so I bought 8 combos of reg and An glass for a really good price.
He is a great guy and has a lot of Omega parts.

Thanks Ill look into buying glass neg carriers but first I'll try to put my L1200 together to see if that is more stable. Im assuming it would be but I've gotten lost in the Durst naming system and can't quite yet figure out which parts I'm missing.

Problem with glass neg is the endless dusting (I feel sorry for anyone with OCD using a glass neg carrier -- they'll end up wiping a hole in the glass!) I know the tiny bit of dust or a smudge won't necessarily have an effect on the print but just knowing it is there (and raking light shining off of the negative holder makes it so apparent) just annoys me. Again, a case of having too much info, and not enough tools to do something about it.

[cyrus]

Do you have a web address for Focal Point in Fla Bob?

[bob carnie]

Here you go.

mike@fpointinc.com

tell him I recomended you, maybe I will win a prize.