Wood Elwood 5x7 Enlarger

[Jim C.]

I recently aquired a wood elwood 5x7 enlarger, with a neg carrier, and lens board, it's in pretty nice condition
with the usual missing bits, the diffuser glass, glass for the negative carrier, light bulb and enlarging lens.
So far I've spruced up the cast iron column and examining the lamp head carriage there seems to be
missing some metal strips that I guess assist in clamping the lamp head to the wood that's on the cast iron column.
Any one have a wood Elwood enlarger that could give me some measurements on the metal strips ?
I'm probably going to add a spring reel to it so the head doesn't come crashing down.

I was also about to see if I could polish the interior dome surface more thinking it was aluminum, till I noticed the hole in the front of the
dome for the locating pin was copper colored where it was worn, scraping around more in other areas it seems that the dome is plated copper
with the interior being silvered as in a mirror. It's no wonder the lamp reflectors are missing from so many of them when they come up on the Bay.
Has anyone attempted to resilver the interior of the lamp reflector ?

[Tin Can]

I don't have any wood Elwoods yet, but may be getting a 5x7 wood one sooner or later from Ohio.

I am considering chrome plating a dome interior, maybe a bumper chrome guy.

Mine all use Elwood spring reels, one on 5x7 and 2 or 3 on 8 x10.

Some use weights, I think the Ohio wood 5x7 has a weight.

[Jim C.]

Randy, The Elwoods you have are later models from what I've seen, they have the metal carriage for the negs and lens
so those have the spring reel counter balance system.
From what I can tell the interior is mirror type silvering and it may cost less than chrome plating, I'm looking to see if there is
a local place here in NY that can give me a price. I've always wanted to try DIY mirror silvering and there's quite a selection
of DIY kits out there, if the price to have it done by someone else is exorbitant then I may go the DIY route, or leave it as is.
The silvering in there now isn't that bad, I was just curious if anyone's had it done for an wood Elwood.

[Jim C.]

Some pictures of my beastie,



The wood disc that the dome sits on the negative stage seems to have broken off at one point ( or the seller broke it )
and a hex head wood screw was put in to hold it together. Glass is missing.



There is what looks to me to be missing springs on the rail clamp.

[Tin Can]

You gotta get the glass set up. It was one sandblasted sheet on top and 3 more clear all stacked. Some say heat glass, but I think it's just glass. You may be able to print a diffusion pattern and put it on the bottom. You found the manual, right?

These thing get real hot real quick, you need to pancake the neg in glass, 1/8" bottom and 1/4" top.

Make a lensboard, they are hard to find. I found one of aluminum I like.

Is the J stand aluminum? Mine is, but I have cast iron and an aluminum J stand 8x10's. Exact same things, just scaled up.

I want to powdercoat my aluminum when I hit Lotto. I don't play the Lotto.

They kinda look like droids...

I use it for a copy stand a lot, with a tethered digicam that I make level by looking at an square pattern. quicker than levels and sticks and lasers.

I didn't know about silvering kits, tell me more.

[Jim C.]

Are you sure that it's 3 sheets of glass for diffusion ?
When I took the picture I examined where the diffusion glass would go and I don't see where
3 sheets would fit, the blocks have a groove that looks like it holds one sheet.
Somewhere in my Googling I read that the diffusion glass was graduated,
more matte in the center and less out towards the edge.
I've seen the manual at cameraeccentric, it's for the later all metal
Elwoods, I don't know how much had changed when Elwood went to all metal construction.

You're not kidding they get hot ! I have a 75 watt regular light bulb in there
and the dome was pretty toasty after having it on for less than 5 min.
When I do put in a 500W 302 bulb I won't need to turn my furnace on !

I wound up getting an extra lens board that had an ilex shutter with an anastigmat in it
but the lens board that came with the enlarger has 3.5" hole bored in it with a brass plate
that was fastened to the back ( off center ) threaded for M39. I'm taking that brass plate out
and I'll probably make some out of aluminum.

The J stand is cast iron, i still have to wire brush the upper part and paint it, as well as the dome.
I was entertaining the thought of putting a wrinkle finish on the stand, but thought better of it since
a wrinkle finish is a dust magnet with the all the nooks and crannies.

[Tin Can]

Read the manual here. The setup talks about glass plates, first page. http://www.cameraeccentric.com/html/info/elwood_1.html

Yes the diffusion plate is graduated and denser in the middle. I have the 1 diffuser and 3 clear glass plates for 3 Elwoods, all OE or factory mods. That notch is a mistake from when they made it wrong with one piece of diffusion glass and no heat absorbing glass. Right in the manual it says they figured out it needed more stacked glass! You stack it all up nice and clean and use long enough screws with the supplied little pieces of triangular sheet metal, like weird washers, and lightly tighten the stack. It is kinda delicate. I would take a pic, but it's a PITA to get to. In an Elwood heat glass is regular glass.

I would not use a 500 watt bulb in 5x7, use a 150 or 250, I believe the 500 was for the 8x10.

I also suggest not using a rare enlarger bulb to test and setup, but find one of those huge 300 watt CFL's that Home Depot had for 5 minutes. It runs cooler and has plenty of light to test focus, alignment , enlargement size etc. Of course it will be no good for actual production, unless...

Mine all have OE crinkle paint. I plan to make mine dayglow with chrome domes, inside and out.

Don't use old wiring and switches.

I put a main fuse box GFI breaker in to protect my entire darkroom and grounded all sinks and big metal objects like these monsters.

[rjmeyer314]

Randy, I'm looking to see if there is
a local place here in NY that can give me a price. I've always wanted to try DIY mirror silvering and there's quite a selection
of DIY kits out there, if the price to have it done by someone else is exorbitant then I may go the DIY route, or leave it as is.
The silvering in there now isn't that bad, I was just curious if anyone's had it done for an wood Elwood.

There used to be a place called "Evaporated Metal Films" in Ithaca, NY that could coat anything from a lens up to a Volkswagen. I don't know if they're still in business. There's also a coating company in Rochester, NY that could do it, but I don't remember the name. Try a google search.

[Tin Can]

I'm checking chrome shops in Chicago, I may have them chrome the dome inside and out.

I'm not kidding about an unusual powder coat color on the J frame. But what would be good?

I once commissioned a set of pink Snap-On wrenches for a gift.

There used to be a place called "Evaporated Metal Films" in Ithaca, NY that could coat anything from a lens up to a Volkswagen. I don't know if they're still in business. There's also a coating company in Rochester, NY that could do it, but I don't remember the name. Try a google search.

[Jim C.]

rjmeyer314 , Thanks for the info there are different processes for getting a mirror like surface, silvering as in mirrors which uses silver nitrate I believe,
chrome plating which is similar to electroplating, wet and toxic, I still have a pound or two of nickel sulfate left over from when I was experimenting
with electroformed molds, vacuum plating which puts the part in a vacuum and aluminum wire is heated
till it evaporates and deposits in a primed surface, and paint. Evaporated Metal Films sounds like a vacuum plating place.
I'll Google them and see what they actually do.

Randy, since your Elwoods are the much later and much envied ( ) metal models I'd carefully examine your
domes to see if they are copper or aluminum, if they're aluminum strip the exterior and polish, a coat of clear coat
after polishing would make them just like chrome.
Come to think of it, if they're copper, strip and polish, it'll look like a Martian War machine !