I'm contacting the guy with the Elwood.
I'm contacting the guy with the Elwood.
I have an old Besler 57 as well. I started out in my last house keeping it in the garage and moving it into the tiny little bathroom when I wanted to do printing. It became a major effort because it was big and awkward. So much so that I didn't print all that often because of the work just in setting up the darkroom. Recommend that you check the size of your bathroom door to see if you can move the enlarger straight in or have to tilt it like I had to. The base on my enlarger is 25 1/2" x 28" x 44" tall. The door in my bathroom was only 24" wide.
I found an older wooden Elwood that is a tad smaller than my D5XL. I haven't heard from the guy in Philly. I'll make a base for it like my D5XL (24x36). I'll be able to use the same cart.
I have an Omega E3 (maybe an E2, I forget) that fits well on a bench. It has a shorter column than the D5XL I had next to it. I modified the cold light head to use LEDs. It prints pretty well, but I haven't yet cleanup the chassis, so it's a bit rough. I really should sell it since I now have a Durst 138.
Chris, where are you located? I don't want to bother packing and shipping, but if you are near NH I can make you a good deal on it.
I also have a 5x7 Elwood like the one in the Craigslist that ad that I never got to using. Picked it up with a lowball bid on an ebay auction. I think it was $20. I felt really bad buying it from the guy as he said he put 40 hours into restoring it. Again, if you are in the area I'll make you a good deal.
I'm in Connecticut. I'm between 3-4 hours drive to southern/middle NH. So If I can do it on a weekend it's possible.
The Elwood is a nice enlarger, I got one from a friend and It's a late model cast aluminum 5x7..Smart, simple carrier setup.
Does the all metal Elwood have adjustments for negative carrier to baseboard alignment?
Even if it does not, you will have a lot of leeway in a small enlargement. For example when I'm enlarging 8x10 negatives to 1.4x I can move the lens stage up and down about 3mm in each direction with little change in sharpness looking through the grain magnifier. That is a lot of leeway to be out of alignment. As you enlarge to greater magnification, your leeway for alignment errors gets smaller.
Enlarging a 5x7 negative to 11x14" is so much easier than enlarging a 35mm negative that size...aren't you glad you do large format
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