D2 cogged wheels not fully engaging rear column

[jga]

Hi,
I bought an Omega D-3 a couple of weeks ago, reasonably complete, but very dirty. The lens and the carrier were missing, and I had to fully disassemble, clean it, an reassemble. I realized by doing that that the gears were very damaged, and the reason seemed to be that they were adjusted way too tight against the rail, so I'd recommend to check that too.
Since here it is very difficult (and expensive!) to get an Omega spare part, or anything that is not metric, I made a drawing and 3d printed the gears.
I'm very happy with the results, and I can upload the model to thingiverse (or similar) if anyone is interested.

[Axelwik]

Check the wheels that ride on the column. If they're out of place the gears won't fully engage. Mine is a D5 XL, but your D2 is likely similar - On mine there are two plastic wheels at the bottom of the moveable assembly and two at the top. thumbnail_image1 (7) by Marco Wikstrom, on Flickr
thumbnail_image0 (18) by Marco Wikstrom, on Flickr

[Axelwik]

I had to double check mine to confirm, the shafts that the guide wheels are on
are off center drilled, so the become an eccentric shaft.
You can loosen the screws on either end of the shaft and rotate the shaft
so the wheels make contact with the rails, there is a hole drilled thru the shaft
just for that purpose ( stick an allen key in it to act as a handle to rotate ).

Just make sure the lamp housing and condenser are removed.

That eccentric is for adjusting the alignment (to make the lens board parallel with the base board). There shouldn't be enough adjustment there to disengage the gears. The wheels should be in contact with the column - they're designed like train wheels to keep them centered on the column.

[Ben Calwell]

Check the wheels that ride on the column. If they're out of place the gears won't fully engage. Mine is a D5 XL, but your D2 is likely similar - On mine there are two plastic wheels at the bottom of the moveable assembly and two at the top. thumbnail_image1 (7) by Marco Wikstrom, on Flickr
thumbnail_image0 (18) by Marco Wikstrom, on Flickr

Thank you. I have those “train wheels,” but two of them on the left side of the column won’t budge. The other wheels (on the other side) spin freely. It’s a mess. It think I need to dismantle the enlarger and see what the problem is. Given my utter lack of mechanical aptitude, it’s likely to end up a bigger mess. As it stands, I’m locked into doing 8x10 enlargements (actually a little bigger), as I’m unable to move the head up or down.

[LabRat]

A safety warning here is to be very careful of those reeled lift springs!!! Never work on enlarger without head in uppermost top of column where the springs are mostly wound inside their housing, because if extended and released, the sharpish edge can whip and reel in like a flying bandsaw blade that could cut to the bone or even sever a finger!!!

Only remove springs when little of the springs are sticking out, and note there is a sharp point near the buckle...

Wearing heavy work gloves, face shield, and heavy canvas work jacket
not excessive when performing this operation...

Steve K

[Ben Calwell]

A safety warning here is to be very careful of those reeled lift springs!!! Never work on enlarger without head in uppermost top of column where the springs are mostly wound inside their housing, because if extended and released, the sharpish edge can whip and reel in like a flying bandsaw blade that could cut to the bone or even sever a finger!!!

Only remove springs when little of the springs are sticking out, and note there is a sharp point near the buckle...

Wearing heavy work gloves, face shield, and heavy canvas work jacket
not excessive when performing this operation...

Steve K

Duly noted. Thank you for the warning.

[hol571]

When I got my D2 the wheels and gears were out of alignment, it had clearly taken a whack from the side. On one side the wheel spun freely and the other was jammed against the column. I had to loosen some of the bolts to be able to push the alignment wheels back into the proper position which then allowed the gears to engage properly

[Ben Calwell]

Thanks all. The other day I loosened some bolts and managed to get the “train wheels” to spin again. I can now move the head up and down, but I have to do it by pushing or
pulling it up or down, as the gears are badly stripped and are still not fully meshing with the teeth on the column. But it glides pretty easily by hand. I appreciate all the advice.

[jga]

I uploaded a model of the gears here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6113113 If you don't have a 3D printer, there are many places you can send it to print (I have used shapeways multiple times, I'm quite happy with them).
I hope it helps!

[Axelwik]

Thanks all. The other day I loosened some bolts and managed to get the “train wheels” to spin again. I can now move the head up and down, but I have to do it by pushing or
pulling it up or down, as the gears are badly stripped and are still not fully meshing with the teeth on the column. But it glides pretty easily by hand. I appreciate all the advice.

Now that you have it working somewhat, you can align it so that the lens board, negative carrier, and base board are all parallel.

A quick and dirty check to see if it's somewhat aligned is to put a negative carrier in without a negative, turn it on, focus to put the edges into sharp focus, and then use a ruler to measure the diagonal distances between corners. With the lens at its widest aperture all the edges should be in sharp focus at the same time, and the diagonal distance between upper left and lower right should be identical to the distance between the upper right and lower left.

Before doing this be sure the negative carrier is properly seated and the condenser housing is flush with the negative carrier all the way around. If they aren't, investigate why.