Last summer I moved up from a Besler 45MX to 45XL. The enlarger had all of the manuals and one owner. I thought it would be the closet I would come to having a new enlarger. Unfortunately I haven't had much time since then to use it. Now thanks to social isolation I ventured in today to do some printing. Much to my surprise I was getting some vignetting. I started to take things apart to see what was going on. What I found amazed me. Either this was put together wrong or there is some bizarre engineering going on here.
When you look down from the light source the lens stage is not directly in line but opening is in the 2 O'clock position. If you look at the picture the bottom the screen is the front of the enlarger. You can see where the dark area is (this is where the lens board goes into) there is a vignetting occurring. The second picture is without the lens board holder in place so it's a straight view to the base board.
Another view looking straight down from the light source with lens board holder in place with no lens board on
Here's the view from the bottom looking up
Now if I turn the lens board 180 degrees there is no vignetting that occurs. However, it is not possible to attach the lens board holder this way given the screw positions to attach the board.
Was this put together wrong? Bad engineering? Any ideas how I can fix this? Right now I'm wishing I had my old Besler 45MX. Thanks
Michael
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