Durst 184 - new darkroom considerations?

[Kimberly Anderson]

Hey gang,

I'm almost finished with the main portion of my basement and will soon be fitting out my darkroom.

It looks like I may have stumbled upon a reasonably priced Durst 184, and I am wondering about any considerations I may want to keep in mind while designing my space.

I have 9 foot ceilings and can put the enlarger really anywhere I want to since I have nothing in the room yet except for studs and a doorway.

Any thoughts?

[ic-racer]

1) 220v Power (if you head needs it).
2) Spare power supplies, heads, bulbs, Mixing boxes, condensers, lensboards, lenses, etc are all very large and can take up an entire 6ft shelving unit for storage. Rather than a spare drawer that a smaller enlarger might require for the same.

[Allen in Montreal]

.......It looks like I may have stumbled upon a reasonably priced Durst 184

Did you pick up that 157.00 Durst 184 with an Omega F head in NYC last week?
That was a killer deal! I hope it was someone here who landed it.

[Kimberly Anderson]

No, I didn't get that one.

[Allen in Montreal]

No, I didn't get that one.

:-(

The only advice I can offer is: a lot of people put them tight in the corner, if you have the space allow room to move around the baseboard on three sides.
My enlargers are in corners to save floor space and it bothers me when printing.
It works, you learn to live with it, but it would be really nice to be able to maneuver around the baseboard a little more.

[Len Middleton]

Michael,

Our friends ic and Allen have used their enlargers (I am still setting mine up), might be able to indicate your maximum print size in vertical mode only. It will of course depend upon the height of your enlarging head and the lens you are using relative to your 9 foot ceiliings.

I do have a spreadsheet for calculations on magnification for different lenses based upon maximum available distance from negative stage to printing paper location.

If that maximum size is too small for you, consider how you would lay out the darkroom for projection printing (e.g. easel location, whether to rail mounting, etc.).

Hope that is useful,

Len

[ic-racer]

If you have the condenser head the fully raised height is 2750mm. Nine feet would be 2743mm, so you should be able to do nearly a 40" print from 8x10 with the table all the way down and a 300mm lens.

[Kimberly Anderson]

A 40-inch print would be sweet. I could set it up in an area that gives me both 3-sided access AND would let me rotate it to the wall. Does it rotate in only one direction, or does it swing left or right? I know that it was mounted on rails before and I saw a 25-foot wide print today from it that was made from a 5x7 negative.

This thing is a beast.

[Len Middleton]

If you have the condenser head the fully raised height is 2750mm. Nine feet would be 2743mm, so you should be able to do nearly a 40" print from 8x10 with the table all the way down and a 300mm lens.

ic,

Thanks for the detail, as mine is limited by my ceiling height...

[Kimberly Anderson]

I just measured my ceiling...with no flooring, I have 9'1".

The power source is 110v...I think that there must be some sort of power transformer with it...there was a big box that I couldn't identify. Is there a pro or con to running it on 110? I can get 220v into the darkroom super easy at this point.