Mounting Enlargers to the Wall

[photographs42]

Turner Reich is right. Even concrete, if you are close to a road, will transmit vibrations.
very minimal and probably wouldn't hurt, unless a big truck was going by.

Joe A

I don’t know what you’re basing this on but if you live in an area where trucks on the road cause a concrete wall to vibrate you need to move. If your darkroom has a wood floor structure (as opposed to a concrete floor) you are far more likely to pick up vibration from a base cabinet sitting on the floor than from wall vibration. If you have a concrete floor, the wall is almost certainly resting on the concrete and there is no reason to believe it would vibrate.

My enlarger has been attached to the wall for the last 25 years and I have never noticed any vibration. OK, I lied. When lightning hit the large oak tree 8' from the house , the thunder shook everything, but it only lasted a few seconds and I wasn't in the darkroom at the time.

Jerome

[Greg Lockrey]

If you want the least amount of vibration, put the enlager on a granite slab on top of a yard of sand.

The main reason I went to digital printing in wide format.

[JOSEPH ANDERSON]

I don’t know what you’re basing this on but if you live in an area where trucks on the road cause a concrete wall to vibrate you need to move. If your darkroom has a wood floor structure (as opposed to a concrete floor) you are far more likely to pick up vibration from a base cabinet sitting on the floor than from wall vibration. If you have a concrete floor, the wall is almost certainly resting on the concrete and there is no reason to believe it would vibrate.

My enlarger has been attached to the wall for the last 25 years and I have never noticed any vibration. OK, I lied. When lightning hit the large oak tree 8' from the house , the thunder shook everything, but it only lasted a few seconds and I wasn't in the darkroom at the time.

Jerome

[JOSEPH ANDERSON]

I don't base it on experience,that'sfor sure. Because I don't practice what I preach..
What I
do base it on is what I lerarned studing physics more years ago than I'd like to remenber.
In any case, I'm cutting down all the trees within 8' of my house.
lol Joe A

[max_ebb]

I mounted my Beseler MCRX to the wall with a table about a foot and a half below the baseboard. I often print on the baseboard, but I just remove it and print on the table when I need to. I found it to be fairly simple to mount on the wall, but I mounted the frame and baseboard first, and then attached the enlarger after it was mounted.

I just attached a length of 2x4 to the wall with a level (spanned across 3 studs). then I put the back of the enlarger frame on the 2x4 (not attached to the 2x4 in any way), and supported the front with a make shift prop while I leveled it front to back and strapped the top cross bar of the column to the wall.

As far as vibration, I believe that wall mounting would reduce vibration to some extent compared to sitting on a table top. Vibrations start from the ground, and would be dampened some what when they transfer from the floor to the wall. The real problem with vibration is when the enlarger head is close to the top of the column, any vibrations would be amplified by the length of the column. Strapping the top of the column to the wall helps to negate that problem. My previous enlarger was sitting on a table top, and I still had the top of the column strapped to the wall to reduce the potential for vibration problems when printing large prints. It was a necessity for that enlarger because I built a larger baseboard for it and extended the length of the column by about 10", so it wasn't very stable when the enlarger head was up near the top of the column. Strapping the top of the column to the wall (with 2 straps in a V shape) made it significantly more stable.

If you want the least amount of vibration, put the enlager on a granite slab on top of a yard of sand.

The main reason I went to digital printing in wide format.

The MAIN reason you went to digital printing was vibration? In 25 years of printing with an enlarger, I don't think I have ever had to redo a print because of vibration (not that I can recall anyway).

[Greg Lockrey]

The MAIN reason you went to digital printing was vibration? In 25 years of printing with an enlarger, I don't think I have ever had to redo a print because of vibration (not that I can recall anyway).

I was being facetious, Max_Ebb. I have been printing mural size prints for about 35 years, I did have to remake a couple or so due to vibrations BTW.

[cyrus]

I don’t know what you’re basing this on but if you live in an area where trucks on the road cause a concrete wall to vibrate you need to move.

Happens all the time where I live. I can tell when the garbage truck is coming since the building starts to sway before it arrives. Whole town is floating on landfill over what used to be swampland about 200 years ago - and its still pretty wet.

Still, if your enlarger head moves with the building, then the relative movement should be zero and you shouldn't see a difference in the photo, right?

[photographs42]

Happens all the time where I live. I can tell when the garbage truck is coming since the building starts to sway before it arrives. Whole town is floating on landfill over what used to be swampland about 200 years ago - and its still pretty wet.

Bummer!

Still, if your enlarger head moves with the building, then the relative movement should be zero and you shouldn't see a difference in the photo, right??

I don’t think it works quite like that. There is a little thing called inertia that gets in the way. In any event, if the ground moves, the floor and the wall both move so either way you’re hosed.

Jerome

PS: Thanks for the acknowledgement of the photos I sent for the book.