DIY Basebord?

[sperdynamite]

My 8x10 Zone VI enlarger is still giving me some alignment woes. The whole rig is just too heavy for me to easily wall mount it, and even if I did my table surface is not perfectly level. I think it would be easiest if I could mount it to some kind of leveling baseboard. I am not making prints bigger than 16x20 and I have a 240mm lens so I don't need very much height...especially since I'm going LED. I think one problem now is that the existing Kienzle VC diffusion head is way oversized for it. The weight of it alone requires an extra counterweight, which is what makes it hard to wall mount. An LED should make the whole thing easier to deal with.

Any ideas here? Sometimes I think I should throw in the towel and look for a different enlarger that is more 'self contained', but then I think I have a perfectly good Zone here and my difficulties should be surmountable!

[Ethan]

A base board that can level should be fairly simple, but some photos of your setup would help to see what you're dealing with

[esearing]

Threaded adjustable furniture/machine foot levelers from the hardware store might be your answer if you only need small adjustments to your baseboard. If you want to level your entire workbench there are heavy duty leg levelers. Both will need a hole to thread into and a little Loctite helps.

[Tin Can]

FOTAR used a formica covered composite AKA particle board almost 2" thick

With 5 heavy duty levelers, one in middle

As the formica came loose, there was edge warpage

Russian Birch Plywood can be very flat

Saltzman was similar but thinner

I check my baseboards with instrument grade 36" straight edge

[John Layton]

Mr. (or Ms?) Dynamite...you did not mention if your Z-6 is with or without its original baseboard. If with...then you know that its quite sturdy already - with that V-shaped under-girder integrated into the column. Why would this not be sturdy enough?

[Bob Wagner]

As far as the material to use for a new baseboard if that is required, I used baltic birch plywood which is composed of more layers than ordinary plywood and bonded with waterproof glue. The top layer is much thicker than home store plywood. I coated it both sides and edges with oil based polyurethane, 2 or 3 coats, sanded between. It has been rock solid for years. You can buy it at specialty woodworking supply stores, and of course it is not cheap. I also use laminate covered particle board for various things, but it will warp and delaminate on exposure to moisture.

[Jim Jones]

Rather than rely on one thick slab of plywood to provide strength and stability for an enlarger baseboard, consider two much lighter pieces of plywood separated by and bonded to a web of smaller strips of wood. The higher these strips are, the more rigid the baseboard will be. This is how steel girders get much of their strength. Keep in mind that the weak point of many enlargers is the junction of column and baseboard.

[sharktooth]

Since you're sticking to 16x20 or smaller, it might make sense to just align your easel by putting some pads under the corners. This could work if you're not moving the easel around much, or changing it's orientation.

[ic-racer]

I made a false baseboard that is adjustable and it fits over the main baseboard. I actually don't use it anymore because I subsequently shimmed the column, like the service manual indicated. That brought it into alignment without needing the false baseboard.
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[MrFujicaman]

How about a slab of granite from a counter store with threaded inserts at each corner?

[domaz]

How about a slab of granite from a counter store with threaded inserts at each corner?

I'm assuming you mean the engineered granite (that is not actually granite?). Seems very flat, very heavy and very expensive $$$

[LabRat]

The first thing to check is what is happening to your old baseboard... Take a long straight edge and lay it from the column mating area to the outer corners on it's edge... Put a flashlight behind where they meet, and see how much space you can see between them... If there is no or very little gap, (especially look where the easel would sit on it) and if fairly uniform, you might salvage it... If there are irregular waves, or a "potato chip" shape to it, replace it...

If acceptable, ribbing the bottom with a V shaped pair of ribs with the apex starting from column mounting area, and ribs ending near front corners underneath...

The big alignment problem area is where bottom column mates with baseboard... The wood there is often dented from weight, overtightening, or settling, so good to get a couple of at least 1/4" or thicker aluminium plates with holes drilled so the column mounting bolts can pass through with the plates on top and bottom of baseboard to spread weight over a larger area of the wood...

You can make (or have made) for very reasonable $$$ a baseboard made from two or three layers of 3/4" MDF bonded together with solvent contact cement and formica or tempered smooth press board on the surface... The tricky part is evenly clamping and bonding layers together with even pressure, but a cabinet shop has a vacuum press that works well... This board will be heavy, but the mass will also steady entire enlarger... Get a quote from a shop of how much to construct first, as it's an easy project for them...

Good luck!!!

Steve K

[MrFujicaman]

I'm assuming you mean the engineered granite (that is not actually granite?). Seems very flat, very heavy and very expensive $$$

Nope..since granite countertops are all the rage, many of the shops seem to have fair sized scraps left over. Look on Craigslist under materials.

[sperdynamite]

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To follow up here, you can see what I'm working with. The base of the enlarger rests on this Uline work table. It's braced above on the wall for stability. However the Uline table is generally over weighted and so it slight bows inward. I've braced it with a floor jack. If I had a team of people maybe I could wall mount it but given the height of the ceiling I don't have the clearance to take off the chassis and thus, remove the counterweights. If I could build a baseboard that could be leveled, I could attach the column to that, wall brace it, and then align the lens/negative stage as needed.

Just wondering if someone has a better solution for me that I'm not thinking of, and does not involve an army of strong people.

[sharktooth]

I think you're making things way more difficult than necessary by trying to level the enlarger. Let the enlarger remain unleveled, and make a secondary or "false" baseboard that you can adjust to be parallel to the film plane. This is what ic-racer showed in his post. There is no stress on the false baseboard when you do it this way. Any old flat piece of board can work if you add some leveling screws to the corners. Have a look at the pictures in ic-racer's post, and think about how that works.