Recently ordered a s/h Lines and Jones 5x4 enlarger. When it arrived the cathode tube was in bits. I've been back to the dealer who can't find a replacement of any kind but managed to find someone who'll hand-make one for the price of rewiring the entire house! They've actually refunded me the price so I have an old but dirty enlarger with no light source. On the plus side the dallmeyer lens supplied as stuck on F8 is now working thanks to 2 hours cleaning and some lighter fluid. Do I have any options regarding fitting some sort of light source? I'm in England by the way and not in any way interested in MTF curves.

-- Dave Bulmer (bowlocks@aol.com), February 08, 2001

Answers

Adapt an Aristo cold light. They're relatively inexpensive and available in a variety of sizes, perhaps even one that'll fit your enlarger natively. If not, dig into your toolkit. Check this site for specs:



Actually, I just noticed that they'll also custom bend a tube for you. all sizes, shapes, twists, turns, curves and chicanes...

-- Chad Jarvis (cjarvis@nas.edu), February 08, 2001.

Doh!

Aristo Grid Lamp Products, Inc.

-- Chad Jarvis (cjarvis@nas.edu), February 08, 2001.

A word of warning...when relamping an enlarger to the new Aristo V54 light source, I broke the old (Aristo) tube trying to get it out of the light source housing. If you look carefully enough you can tell it has mercury in it and little droplets came out on the counter and darkroom floor. Don't know if your original tube had mercury in it, but just in case I thought I'd pass this along.

-- Kevin Crisp (krcrisp@aol.com), February 08, 2001.

Definitely contact Aristo. They may even have a stock head that fits that enlarger.

-- Charlie Strack (charlie_strack@sti.com), February 08, 2001.

Thanks for the lead on Aristo. I contacted them and they seem to be promising. Also Pete Andrews who regularly contributes to the forum suugested that a de vere 504 head may fit and I have an address for the distributers of that company so all is not lost I hope. Thanks again.

-- Dave Bulmer (bowlocks@aol.com), February 08, 2001.

Hi again Dave. I was going to e-mail you off list, but thought this might be of general interest.
I have a transparency lid (TMA) for a Mustek flatbed scanner that looks ideal as a diffuse LF enlarger light source. It's a flat panel affair giving an illuminated area of 6x7 inches. The light is absolutely even, as measured with a photometer, and it reaches maximum output in about 10 seconds. After this initial warmup, it can be switched on and off and gives full brightness 'instantly'. All the HV electronics is contained inside the unit, and it works from a simple little 12 volt mains adapter. It's maybe not quite as bright as a proper Cold cathode head, but there's no more than a stop in it. It weighs less than a kilogram.

Sorry, but before you ask Dave, no you can't have mine, I need it. I'm sure Mustek still make them,though. They cost around 50 UK pounds. (I won't try posting a pound sign again, last time I tried it came out like &%34 this.)

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), February 09, 2001.

Pete:

I'm going to try to post the pound sterling sign. Character map says its alt-0163. £ We'll se if it works. At least it does in the answer box.

-- Charlie Strack (charlie_strack@sti.com), February 09, 2001.

So a big %^)$^$£% to Charlie and a big ^%&()^%%"$£% to Pete, and all the other contributors. Regards Dave.

-- dave bulmer (bowlocks@aol.com), February 09, 2001.