Enlarger alignment. How close is close enough?

[Tin Can]

I have a few enlargers. A while back I bought a Laser Alignment Tool made by Versalab. Got it here on the forum.

I only used this weekend as I was scared of what I may find. Like I might find a lot of work to be done.

I did quick checks on baseboard to lens alignments following the instructions.

As I expected nothing was perfect, meaning the laser beam disappears back directly onto itself.

The included directions gave a brief sample calculation of misalignment that made some sense. Not a perfect technical explanation by any means.

I discovered, all my 4 tested enlargers at least hit the circle target. Good start.

All were measured at my typical user heights. The instruction say to halve the off center measurement as the laser goes up, hits reflector and then back to target.

None had been aligned by me ever and suffered many indignities before I rescued them.

8x10 Calumet off center 3/4" so 3/8".

4x5 Beseler MX off same as above.

2X3 Beseler 23cIII about same.

But my Fotar was on 1/16" off center which is very close to perfect.

The 2 Beseler have adjustments and I will get to them.

The Calumet will need to have lens board shimming. PITA

I will not touch the Fotar, but it is adjustable by baseboard.

Anybody done this and got it straight back into the center?

[Kevin Crisp]

Are you skipping the negative stage check and just doing the lens?

[Tin Can]

Are you skipping the negative stage check and just doing the lens?

Yes, for the moment. Like I said I don't want to scare myself.

In real life, I shimmed and aligned too much stuff, mostly high speed industrial equipment.

I am doing this for fun, not work.

I will get to it. I will check and report, 'our test lab motto'.

[AJ Edmondson]

Been there, done that and yes it was worthwhile but Kevin makes a valid point. I start with the negative stage which brings the stage and baseboard into alignment and then adjust the lens stage. Is it a bit of a chore? Yes, but it isn't all that bad if you take your time and use care in tightening the adjustments upon completion. A piece of glass with black tape on the back side works well in the negative stage. I usually perform my adjustments with the height set for an 11x14 print from a 4x5 negative since that is what I use most often. You may find that you get some variance at other heights due to some "slop" in the tracks but it is easily checked and you can then decide whether it is worthwhile to pursue the elimination of that variance. I use a glass negative carrier and, since I usually use the same lens and height I don't find it necessary to make any "interim" adjustments.
When I used an 8x10 Elwood I used a piece of rubber cut to fit the lens mounting flange to adjust the lens since the rubber could be compressed (Beseler had a "compressible" piece in their lens board for a period of time for the same purpose and, if you use multiple lenses it saves a lot of hassle.)

Joel

[Tin Can]

Good points Aj and Kevin.

That makes total sense to align the neg stage to baseboard FIRST and then conform the lens stage

I have glass carriers to do that for all 4 enlargers. And each one I do use for specific enlargement and formats.

I would like to know if you guys got it all lined up so the Laser dot disappeared? And did it stay that way. I expect the Fotar will be stable, as it is a tank and very solidly constructed. But these other shaky ladies, may change.

[Peter De Smidt]

Yes, at least with the high quality stuff, which in my case means De Vere. The Fotar is similar. Once these things are set, and it's usually fairly straight forward to do, they should remain good unless a fork lift runs into them. The De Vere has set screws and counter screws which allow the stages to be leveled without shims. The smaller enlargers are a different story. I have a Philips enlarger. When I tighten the column lock I can see the dot moving across the Veralab....

[Tin Can]

I did read somewhere that DOF helps with out of alignment stages and getting sharp prints.

But as I gaze into my 2 different mirror focusers, a short DOF seems evident. Enlarger focus goes in and out quickly. More quickly than on my 8x10 shooting camera GG.

Again the Fotar excels here, a smoother, finer and no lash adjustment due to capstan drive. Sure hope those cables don't break. I think I need to install the upgrade safety stops that Vinny has.

I have nearly given up on my Elwoods. They have form over function.

[Peter De Smidt]

I had an Elwood 8x10 "autofocus" bench top model. I have back pain occasionally, and it's due to having moved that enlarger. Like anything, one can go overboard on the search for perfection. For instance when I made silver gelatin prints, which I might do again in the future, I mainly made 8x10s from 4x5 negatives. At that enlargement size, I doubt that super-fine-tuning alignment had much of a difference. Get up to a 10 time enlargement, though, and you'll have to get pretty picky.

[Bill Burk]

I guess I have simple needs.

I just want to minimize the keystone on the black border of my enlargements so that when I go to cut a mat, it doesn't require a special jig to follow the border fairly closely.

[Jac@stafford.net]

I do know if this helps, but I built an adjustable easel support over the existing print board. It uses three adjustable 1/4 x 16 legs/bolts under a known true, flat surface. It supports a Saunders 16x20" easel and anything smaller. I find it more effective than trying to adjust the POS Omega 4x5 enlarger stages. (The Focomat IIa is still true.)

The alignment tool is not important, but mine is is the 'hall of mirrors' type.

Good luck.
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