Durst L1840 Enlarger 8x10 10x10--Everything you wanted to know...

[Steven Ruttenberg]

Should have a thread on the CLS450 head and the Laborator 1000 CE and 1200, also the 138. I am almost done with my cls450 in cleaning and checking it out. I just need to replace all the crusty screws with nice new shiny ones. But gotta figure what size/thread they are. Also, got as many spare parts as possible, color filters, heat absorbing glass, uv/diffuser filters, negative holders etc. Keep this thing running till I'm dead in 100 years. Can't wait to get an L138 or bigger once I have this printing thing down.

[ic-racer]

At least at all the hardware stores near me, metric hardware is available. This is a little crazy, my wife bought one of those fancy tables with post on the back to hang our first big flat-screen TV. Seems like the hardware package came with enough extra hardware to mount a hundred different TVs. I saved all the extra hardware, it was nice black anodized metric hardware. Turns out some of the screws were nearly identical to rusty screws on my L1840.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

Nice!

[Drew Wiley]

138's are easier to rebuild than 184's, also easier to move, but beware of detaching that big main spring. It could get you seriously hurt.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

On mine I have to remove the whole assembly and deach cable before removing spring or else.

[Luis-F-S]

L-1000 is a whole different animal from the L-138, L-184, SM-183 or L-139. As I understand it, the larger Laborators were made by Durst's professional division, the 4x5 enlargers by their consumer division.

L

[Steven Ruttenberg]

According to what I read the CE was made on one continent while the 1000 pro was made on another, but they are identically the same. As for what division made what, I don't know, but the cls450 was used on lots of different models, so couldn't tell you. But from going thru this, it is definitely well made for sure.

[ic-racer]

Durst made some of the best 4x5 enlargers of all time. Top of the line products, just smaller than the 5x7 and 8x10 models.

[Drew Wiley]

There is simply no way the quality of materials or machining that Durst used on their true commercial enlargers could be realistically kept going into this era of aluminum extrusions and CNC parts. The same goes for everything from table saws to microscopes to the difference between the finish on a Sinar Norma camera and what followed afterwards. In that respect, everything has gone downhill from the 70's onward (including music of course). Lenses are a different topic, and have benefitted from newer technology, but in other ways, have suffered from restrictions on glass types.

[Luis-F-S]

There is simply no way the quality of materials or machining that Durst used on their true commercial enlargers could be realistically kept going into this era of aluminum extrusions and CNC parts. The same goes for everything from table saws to microscopes to the difference between the finish on a Sinar Norma camera and what followed afterwards.

+1 Why I’m holding on to my 1941 Delta joiner. Regardless of what you read they don’t make them like they used to!