I have a Beseler 45V-XL enlarger. It is a nightmare to align. For an enlarger that massive and that expensive, it confounds me that the lens board alignment controls consist of two hex nuts on each plane, which force the lens board *out of alignment* when they are tightened! This, to me, on a "profession" piece of equipment, is an incredibly assinine assembly. Does anyone have any experience aligning this beast. If so, how have you solved it? Is there an alignment aide that really helps?

-- Ted Kaufman (writercrmp@aol.com), August 12, 2001

Answers

I have an old 45M stashed away in the garage and took a quick look at it. No visible means of lens board alignment at all, other than the zero point of the lens stage, and the in/out angle of the whole head. Everything is machined square (I hope!) and runs on a nice steel plate w/ angled sides. Not sure what a 45V looks like, but you should probably be thankful for any alignment capability at all! The enlarger in the darkroom is an Omega D3. The only alignment aid I use is a set of two mirrors, one with a hole drilled in it. Email me for more info if you're not familiar with this technique.

-- Conrad Hoffman (choffman@rpa.net), August 12, 2001.