CLS 301 Restoration

[Drew Wiley]

Gosh you must think everyone is indeed dumb and uneducated, Koraks. Nobody knows how to even properly ground equipment? Learning correct wiring is routine by age 16 when you grow up in farm country, especially when your own father had a background supervising giant Federal projects. I ran a rural agricultural electric store largely by myself the summer I was 15. What the heck would I know? - Then, prior to retirement, I was in charge of the distribution of the largest selection of Euro power equipment in the western half of the US, with an adjunct major repair service and giant shop with 6-gauge wiring in it (no, that's not a typo - 6 ga, not 16). I know certain things about the evolution of equipment housings you've probably never heard of.

But you are welcome to bid on my other "lightbulb" when I'm too old to use it, which dwarfs the Durst L184. And no need to worry about a metal housing there - the colorhead housing is machined black phenollc from 1/2 inch thick sheet stock, and you need a block and tackle system to remove it. And yes, even that is totally grounded. Incidentally, my own darkroom complex and house were rewired by our company electrician and his crew - Industrially licensed, not just residentially.

[koraks]

I feel that the discussion is moving away from the topic and is now about credentials, reputation and in the background, ego. I'm not interested in that direction. I don't doubt the validity of your knowledge and work experience.

[Drew Wiley]

I'm sure there are a number of people on this forum who know far more about wiring and electronics than I do, Koraks. Re-doing a CLS301 really isn't all that hard for anyone who knows some basics and owns a continuity tester and multimeter. It can be a lot simpler and less expensive than repairing an old complicated power supply. But those too can simply be ordered new and customized from various commercial sources. It need not be Durst per se, though the sheer replacement route can be somewhat expensive.

What is a lot trickier is cleaning old internal dichroic filter banks without harming them. I did that too, plus total cosmetic restoration of the whole machine, clear back to 100% operational functionality and 95% cosmetic. Certain changes along the way - a black laminate baseboard instead of white, new bellows, a fully interchangeable copystand option with integral lighting, and a masking blade system for the easel suitable up to 30X40 inch prints, even found some mint condition pin registered extra carriers, plus AN glass for those. Overall, a fun project. But people in this neighborhood put in far more time and money restoring motorcycles and speedboats and old cars. Just like any other fix-it hobby if you have the right shop equipment.

[ic-racer]

Where I work we use isolation transformers on many items, but I never had the urge to setup any in my home darkroom. I'm careful about spills and wear the same type of non-conductive silicone clogs on my feet and have GFI breakers. One can read up on GFI vs Isolation Transformer and draw one's own conclusions about safety.

Even with an isolation transformer or GFI things can still go wrong if one has contact with wires on each side of the load, so neither will eliminate the need for conscious safety.

[Drew Wiley]

Common GFI's aren't adequate for cumulative high wattage applications. You need it in the distribution panel itself. My enlargers are all in dry spaces totally separate from the sink room. And in terms of hypothetical fire risk, even my ceiling have FRP (fire-resistant fiberglass panel) installed above and behind the colorheads. Hot air is exhausted outside the building by pull force, and not just internal colorhead fans. In the sink room, my footswitch for temporary safelight operation is totally rubberized and waterproof - no risk of corrosion or water penetration. All kinds of things can be done to improve safety.

But something must be terribly terribly wrong if someone manages to electrocute themselves with an operational enlarger! Maybe if they walked over there with dripping fingers and punched some buttons on something not properly grounded or GFI'd. At a minimum, a darkroom should have a "dry side" well spaced apart from the "wet side". In any event, I've never even heard of an enlarger accident of that nature, even in carelessly supervised High School and rental darkrooms. Professional electricians getting fried by other things, yea, especially linesmen doing repairs during electrical storms, or once in awhile someone doing a major high voltage industrial job and getting casual - that I have encountered. But a basic darkroom, in this day and age when a 20-amp wall GFI is dirt cheap and suitable for at least amateur enlargers? It's drymount presses that especially need serious wattage and wall wiring.

And those of us who do work with commercial-grade enlargers also understand commercial or industrial grade wiring requirements. The two go hand in hand. My darkrooms and shop spaces are in a renovated small commercial building, having dual-voltage and a separate panel all along, and now further reinforced electrically. There's nothing particularly exotic about that. People like me routinely look for that kind of thing when buying property in the first place.

I forgot to mention copper thieves. Sometimes they try to steal live overhead utility wiring from the poles on the streets - a type of criminal awfully easy to catch and bag if they do it wrong (body-bag, that is).

[ic-racer]

But something must be terribly terribly wrong if someone manages to electrocute themselves with an operational enlarger!

Yes!

[Drew Wiley]

I was trying to figure out what all of Korak's fuss was about. There are no capacitors in the colorhead per se, and wholly unplugged, even from the power supply, an entire rewiring needs only a basic continuity tester, which is what? - in mine, a single AA battery and little light bulb, plus a probe, and an extension of tiny speaker wire with a little alligator clip on it, rather underpowered to electrocute even a spider.

And in use, every day of the week there is hypothetically greater danger from a basic hair dryer in a wet bathroom. That's why CFCI's are code. Coming from a shop background where the incoming voltage was 440 3-phase before step down, a 115V printing device with two 300W lightbulbs in it isn't so frightening. No, that's certainly not my most powerful colorhead by a long shot; but any serious shop space begins with an ample power supply and grounding. Most kitchens require far more juice than a typical home darkroom.