Found an Automega E-5 Autofocus enlarger body

[Daniel Unkefer]

E3 CLA 1 by Nokton48, on Flickr

A square metal plate is bolted to the base. Then the two wing nuts tighten the column to the metal plate. Super rugged

E3 CLA 2 by
Nokton48, on Flickr

My collection of E3 carriers. I have 35mm, two 6x6, 6x9, 3x4, and two 4x5. And a glass 5x7 which Glenn Evans helped get me going

E3 CLA 3 by Nokton48, on Flickr

The top view of the circular plate that drops on top of the rear of the bellows. This plate rotates 360 degrees

E3 CLA 4 by Nokton48, on Flickr

Same plate as above, originally this held the 4x5 Condenser head for the E3. I removed that and attached some washers piled up to squarely hold the neg carriers. Note the machine screw that fits the slot in the top middle and holds the carrier tightly down

[Daniel Unkefer]

E3 CLA 5 by Nokton48, on Flickr

I cleaned out and rewired the Omegalite head, this one was ok inside. Glued mouse pad to the bottom for light trapping. To use I simply place the Omegalite on top of the negative carrier and that's it. Works fine


E3 CLA 6 by Nokton48, on Flickr

The bottom side of the circular plate that holds up the neg carrier. Notice the machining which drops into the back of the bellows top

E3 CLA 8 by Nokton48, on Flickr

Here is the original E3 coldlight, which has been stripped out and fitted with a bank of LED's. Notice the homemade circular plate; It is badly bent and needs to be remade

E3 CLA 7 by Nokton48, on Flickr

This is part of the E3 4x5 Condenser head; I removed it to cannibalize the metal plate, and added washers to tightly fit the neg carriers into the enlarger

[tomwilliams]

I just got the Omegalite head casing back from the sandblaster ... he got almost all the old interior finish off. Something I hadn't noticed before: if you picture the bottom half of the head, there is a 5"x7" (in the E-5) square cut out of its bottom for the light to escape and illuminate the negative. I'm sure this area should be flat (as it looks to be in your photo "E3 CLA5", Daniel), in order to rest tightly against the negative carrier. But now, from one corner to an adjacent corner of the opening, the bottom plate material arches downward (toward the negative carrier), peaking in the middle of the side. I tried to capture this in the attached photo.





This deformation is evident on all 4 sides of the opening. Stress relief from the sandblasting? The arch is significant, maybe 3/16" up from the corners of the opening to the middle of each side. And almost all of the deformation occurs close to the edges of the opening, rather than gradually rising from the edges of the bottom panel.

Daniel, Kevin, I'm looking for a reality check: the bottom casing of the omegalite has deformed?

[tomwilliams]

Daniel, those carriers look a lot like the E-5 carriers (photo attached). The E-5 carriers measure 7 15/32" x 11 23/32" .... same as the E-3 carriers?

[Seadiver5]

Daniel: Thanks so much for the photos. These will help a lot. I would still like to find out what the actual Omega mount for the Omegalite looks like but I suspect I can make something up like this that will work. I have the original head like the one you converted to LED. How well does that one work? I've also seen where people have converted that head into an incandescent diffusion head by adding an upper light box. Which head do you like the most?

[Seadiver5]

Kevin, the enlarger base is 5.5" in diameter. and the flange is about .320" thick. I believe the D-2 baseplate is compatible with the E series, I get that from the KHB website http://store.khbphotografix.com/Base...gers-Used.html, and from other sellers whose accuracy I'm less certain of (my interactions with Kevin Brown at KHB have given me high confidence in his expertise). I contemplated buying this item from KHB, but the cost, including shipping, was more than I wanted to pay, especially after springing for a 4x5 negative carrier.

I mounted the assembled enlarger to a probably-temporary base yesterday ... seems good. No doubt I'll want to upgrade the base if/when I build a more spacious darkroom.

Attachment 223166

Well what I can tell you is that your solution is all you actually need. The only thing you're limited on would be the ease of rotating the enlarger on the baseboard to orient it for larger enlargements by printing on the floor but in reality nobody ever does that anyway so I think you're good. I'd sell you the base I have for $50 + shipping if you're interested but at that price I would suggest you haunt Craigslist, Offer up, Facebook marketplace, and local auctions because I regularly see D2's that sell for $50. and if you're patient and let higher priced sellers know your interested in their offering at a lower price and you are willing to wait out their attempts to get more you will be surprised at how much of that comes around. I bought my E4 from a guy who originally wanted $350 for it. I offered to wait on him to sell his for more but guaranteed him $50 for it if he ever got there. He lowered his price 3 times to $100 before I contacted him again and he then jumped at my $50 offer.

[Seadiver5]

Attachment 223166

One thing you could do to improve your "Temp" mount to make it more permanent would be to add 3 or 4 nuts or .320 thick spacers up against the enlargers aluminum base with screws through the center hole holding them to the base board so it actually captures the base and keeps it from shifting / sliding around underneath the clips that you've fabricated. Just my .02

[Daniel Unkefer]

I just got the Omegalite head casing back from the sandblaster ... he got almost all the old interior finish off. Something I hadn't noticed before: if you picture the bottom half of the head, there is a 5"x7" (in the E-5) square cut out of its bottom for the light to escape and illuminate the negative. I'm sure this area should be flat (as it looks to be in your photo "E3 CLA5", Daniel), in order to rest tightly against the negative carrier. But now, from one corner to an adjacent corner of the opening, the bottom plate material arches downward (toward the negative carrier), peaking in the middle of the side. I tried to capture this in the attached photo.





This deformation is evident on all 4 sides of the opening. Stress relief from the sandblasting? The arch is significant, maybe 3/16" up from the corners of the opening to the middle of each side. And almost all of the deformation occurs close to the edges of the opening, rather than gradually rising from the edges of the bottom panel.

Daniel, Kevin, I'm looking for a reality check: the bottom casing of the omegalite has deformed?

Yes the bottom of the Omegalite needs to be flat, it does look deformed in your photo. What a bummer! Maybe it can be flattened out to the correct shape? You need to cover it with thick black mousepad foam anyway. And a 5x7 plexiglass panel needs to be installed on the inside, using the two mounting holes and some type of holding clips. Most likely all this can be salvaged

I have an E4 Omegalite head, but I don't the original Omega mechanism that raises and lowers it. I simply place the Omegalite on top of my neg carrier, and orient it (with the light on) so the diffusing plexiglass panel covers the entire negative. This works fine and will work to you too, if you can get the above issues sorted out.

[Daniel Unkefer]

Automega E3 by Nokton48, on Flickr

The original baseboard was about an inch thick so I screwed together two pieces, which took a while but worth it

This base will just do a 16x20 so these dimensions are perfect

E3 Baseboard Bottom Side Finished by Nokton48, on Flickr

E3 Ready for Restoration 1 by Nokton48, on Flickr

The LED head gets hot enough to burn your hands, I much prefer the cool running Omegalite head. Also 5x7 film will curl in a glass carrier when subjected to a lot of heat.

[Daniel Unkefer]

First 5x7 Norma Test 75f8 SA CF E3 150F9 Aristo2 Perfection 3.5min by Nokton48, on Flickr

Here I shot a Sinar Norma 5x7 test neg, using my 75mm f8 Norma Super Angulon, no center filter. I wanted to see the entire lens field, quite a lot of front rise.

I used a 150mm F9 G-Claron lens on the E3 which is what Glenn Evans recommends for 5x7 wide angle enlarging.

My main issue right now is that the enlarger is not assembled squarely; You can see that in the print borders. Eventually I will reassemble it correctly and that should do it

The light source was the 5x7 Omegalite. The paper is graded 8x10 RC #2 Arista from Freestyle