What $20 buys on craigslist.

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hamradio

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I'm pretty excited about this...I was kinda bummed that I lost my darkroom access a several months ago, but was surfing CL one day and came across an ad for it.

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Not a really stellar deal, but not too bad for a small darkroom setup to suit me, IMO. It also came with some literature and unopened long expired kodak rapid fixer and powdered dektol. The only real issues are that the negative carrier is missing, and the lens has some fungus inside. 🙁 It doesn't seem like the lens is anything spectacular in fungus-free condition, however.


So, that leads to the question--what should one do about the missing negative carrier?
 
I think some spares are still available for the Axomat in Europe as the company (Meopta) is still producing a later model - a much later model though....

It would possible to make your own neg carrier. The design is a simple book form (ie. rectangular, hinged on the side that slides first in to the slot) and later Meoptas, maybe this one too, had leaf springs built in to the top part of the neg-carrier 'slot'. So you just have to make something from plywood etc which will put the mount hole at the middle of the space where the carrier goes. The leaf-springs in the body of the enlarger then provide the necessary 'grip' to hold everything flat.

The lens might not be salvageable, but is it a 39mm mount or a smaller size (24mm ? I forget) ? Most modernish 50mm lenses are 39mm mount so the main problem could be the lens-mounting. Also check that the condenser-len(-es) are still in place inside the lower part of the lamp-house part.
 
Thanks for the info! The lens is 24mm or something small like that...I was contemplating buying some 39mm lens and making a new lensboard for it from aluminum.

As for the negative carrier, would it maybe be possible to find something from a more common enlarger (beseler or omega comes to mind), and rework it some to fit? (add strips of wood, etc. to make it fit properly)

As far as I can tell, the condenser is just fine.
 
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It's the middle of the night here, but I'll make a digital p+s pic of the negative-carrier in my Meopta tomorrow if you think that would be useful. Mine is an Opemus, so slightly larger in size to suit rollfilm, but a similar general design.
 
Hmmm, if possible, that would be helpful. I'm curious to see how the neg. carrier fills in the big gap that it sits in. (I'm only familiar with omegas that sort of clamped down on a relatively thin negative carrier)
 
The good news is that fleabay has a manual for your enlarger which should give you the details on which negative carrier(s) you'll need. The bad news is that it's $25.

If it were me, and knowing that you need a lens and have no neg carriers, I would keep the easel and other accessories and see if you could get some of your money back by selling the enlarger. Then buy a Durst/Omega/Beseler complete w/ lenses and neg carriers. I bought a Beseler 23 and got a good price on it, but by the time I bought pro lenses and the expensive neg carriers I have a lot more in it than I wish I had. It's usually cheaper to find just the setup that you need and get it as a unit, and I don't recommend buying cheap lenses w/ the idea of upgrading later either, as you'll just want to redo all of your photos w/ the good lenses anyway. Do it right from the beginning, and be patient. There's some really good deals out there.
 
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