8x10 Enlarger Building Question

[Hal Hardy]

Bill,

The smaller vertical cameras use a flourescent bulb light box for transmission reproductions. Larger verticals and most horizontal cameras have a transluscent copyboard and the lamps pivot around the copyboard to backlight it. I would convert one of these to a cold light of some sort. The original lamps are HOT!

I talked with a graphic arts printing supply rep. about 15 years ago and he said that when they got a repro camera turned into them in trade, they just cut them up for scrap metal since digital reproduction was replacing them and they couldn't resell them.

Repair parts are to the point of having to be custom made. Fortunately, most of them are built like tanks.

[bill_1041]

Hal - The reason I asked about light sources is that I've got one of those stat cameras (Agfa - weighs a TON but razor sharp optics) and I've struggled to adapt a light source that was uniform across my neg. The little light box at the base wasn't even enough to allow decent prints, and I haven't figured out a solution for lighting the neg from the glass above without melting it. I've avoided buying a cold light source as I'm trying to build this myself and save some money. When will I learn that I'm chosen the wrong art form to save money with!

[Hal Hardy]

Bill,

A multi bulb (tungsten) light box could be mounted above the neg stage with a remotely mounted (to eliminate vibration) exhaust fan to provide cooling. Light trap vents would introduce cool air from below the bulbs. Basically, it's the same light source as is used on a high dollar contact frame. You could even use switches to control individual bulbs.

[kthompson]

Or you could look around surplus lots--state or county--for a larger stat camera to canabilize an illuminated stage off. We surplused a $15k Glunz & Jensen vertical stat camera a few years back. It had about a 3 foot wide illuminated copy stage on it ( very even--fluorescent), along with the quartz-halogen lamps. It was a pretty big monster that ran off 220. We had to move it around with a forklift...had great lenses though...3 Schneider G-Clarons, even had an online trans/reflection densitometer. I saw a repromaster headed for the surplus lot just last month, from another lab nearby...so if there's a gov't surplus lot near you, might want to check it out...another option for a lightsource though, would be to rig up some studio strobes in a lightproof box...maybe with some opal glass to diffuse them. oh yeah, about the MP4..we use one of those too...Polaroid used to offer an 8x10 conversion kit to turn it into an enlarger, you can probably still find one...MP3's and 4's can be found at surplus lots ....