New LED head for De Vere 504

[Tin Can]

Beseler 45v-xl 810 with somebody famous DIY

Lens is 240 mm Nikkor with custom lensboard

Wall mount on extended perch

[Daniel.E]

Not to get too far off-topic but what lens are using with the 45v-xl 810? I'm setting up a wall-mounted 45v-xl now with 8x10 (all-white) LED head from Klaus Lundsgaard in Denmark. Filters will work but RGB LED's (someday) would be nice, thus my curiosity and will keep an eye on Intrepid (or perhaps contemplate replacing the white LED's and adding some kind of controller and appropriate power supply -- not that I have more than a minimal idea of what I'm talking about).

Ha! If a Devere showed up and I could afford it I'd jump.

Ha! I'll sell you mine, we're probably not that far from each other. I've use a G-Claron 210mm that has great coverage and a Apo-Gerogon 240mm that does 2x and up. Both lenses are great. I just lost a bid for a Rodagon 240mm but mounting it on the Beseler would have been expensive, either by extension or by mounting it using the flange.

[Daniel.E]

There were some pictures that no longer are available on flickr, Tin Can. I'm curious to see what that 240mm Nikkor looks like mounted

[Peter Lewin]

This sounds wonderful. There are a number of us using (old) ZoneVI VC heads, and there have been posts asking what to do when the tubes die. This head sounds like the perfect answer (especially since my head is mounted on a 504 chassis). Question: can a foot switch be attached to the timer? I find my foot switch very useful when dodging and burning, which occasionally requires both hands.

[Tin Can]

A custom threaded flange made to exactly fit the lens below and the XL above

Slides right in just like OE

4 by TIN CAN COLLEGE, on Flickr

1 by TIN CAN COLLEGE, on Flickr

3 by TIN CAN COLLEGE, on Flickr

There were some pictures that no longer are available on flickr, Tin Can. I'm curious to see what that 240mm Nikkor looks like mounted

[interneg]

I'm missing bits and pieces from my 504

Intrepid & Odyssey De Vere are based about a mile & a bit apart from each other. I'd try Odyssey (or KHB) and see if they can get you the parts you need. There's enough De Vere 504's out there with the less desirable/ repairable heads on them (though I quite like the Cathomag...) and the market demand for an affordable head (as opposed to a new MKIV dichroic) is enough for this to be worthwhile. In fact there's been an outright shortage of bench 504's (from what I heard) for reconditioning.

They can be wall mounted, but also have a very heavy cast iron bed that makes it bench mount with hand controls front

Largely aluminium & a lot of it - though the baseboard frame of the floor stand is welded steel. 504/507/5108/515 are on same column and share large amount of parts commonality, 203 uses a different column/ baseboard. The Vulcan/ Apollo & their 108s predecessor are on even more massive castings for the column etc.

De Vere and Kamm both seem to have used relatively similar wire-drive & tensator spring systems for front of baseboard control (unlike the chain drives of Saltzman etc). If you have the right parts you can quite quickly go between wall (DVW), bench (DVB) and the 1939 drop table versions - the DVF floor model essentially adds a few more mechanical connections to integrate the controls under the baseboard (which makes it harder but not impossible - just a messy undertaking involving fully rethreading the drive cables - to convert it to a DVW setup). By great good fortune I found a pin-reg 5108 DVW on the drop table & had the requisite parts to turn it into a DVB (when new, 5108 DVB's were rare and largely used for photo comp work) to fit the available space - not a complicated job, though the remarkably tight tolerances of the parts requires a little bit of common sense.

They have tons of micro adjustments for, you know....precision

The precision differences between them and the big Dursts are... interesting

Especially given the large amount of effort invested by some on here in trying to acclaim Durst's bigger machines as some sort of engineering pinnacle (which is a big flashing warning that they've never actually been within a metre or two of a De Vere - or any number of other machines (let alone a mapping rectifier) built for the military/ industrial mapping complex).

The new head needs the giant counterweight they are including, to balance the counter springs

From recall, the 504 tensator needs about 8kg to counterweight it, the 5108 about twice that (which makes it a real hazard to the unwary - otherwise not difficult to deal with).

[Peter De Smidt]

That LED head is tempting. I'm looking forward, Randy, to hearing how you like it.

[Daniel.E]

Intrepid & Odyssey De Vere are based about a mile & a bit apart from each other. I'd try Odyssey (or KHB) and see if they can get you the parts you need. There's enough De Vere 504's out there with the less desirable/ repairable heads on them (though I quite like the Cathomag...) and the market demand for an affordable head (as opposed to a new MKIV dichroic) is enough for this to be worthwhile. In fact there's been an outright shortage of bench 504's (from what I heard) for reconditioning.

I’m on it! I’ll study the diagrams and figure out the parts I need. Right away I know I’m missing the lift pins and the nylon screws. I’ll send them a message with some pictures and go from there. Thank you!

[Daniel.E]

A custom threaded flange made to exactly fit the lens below and the XL above

Slides right in just like OE

4 by TIN CAN COLLEGE, on Flickr

1 by TIN CAN COLLEGE, on Flickr

3 by TIN CAN COLLEGE, on Flickr

That’s impressive! Thank you for the pictures!

[Carl J]

Hi Randy,

I have the Rodagon 240mm 5.6 and a custom 4x4 lens board to fit the wider barrel. I was following a 2016 thread by Neal Chaves as to how he did it -- by removing some material from the enlarger [lens] 'throat' of the Beseler: https://www.largeformatphotography.i...eler-45VXL-810

However, before going at it with a hacksaw I wanted to look at my options and what you have with the extended perch looks pretty intriguing. I'm loathe to cut away material if I didn't have to (would prefer to leave the enlarger stock).

Also, not quite sure how the custom board is held in place on the lens stage; was this part of the original conversion?