why is enlarging baseboard white not black?

[Ljós]

I read that all the time, but it really makes no difference once you stop the lens down to f8. If you enlarge with wider apertures, maybe, but why should one do that. Even the 6-elements lenses benefit from being stopped down.

Factoring in the thickness of the paper is the closest we analog people can come to "pixel-peeping", so we keep doing it ;-)

 

[rybolt]

Many enlarger baseboards were grey because the enlargers could also be used as copy stands. Having an 18% grey scale as a baseboard was a feature.
I use the Saunders 1417 easels for most work and they have been yellow for many years. As to the question of using an old print for focus: Why not? It's just one more tool to use in the quest for the best image. Plus, it's cleaner than my easel.

 

[cmc850]

You can always permanently attach a piece of paper to the base of your magnasight or grain focuser. Another hazard of long exposures - sometimes one is forced to project all the way to the floor for a big enlargement. Somewhere I have a print with a crisp white silhouette of a large spider that rested on the paper during a long exposure!

For average-size printing, it's great to build an enlarger stand that has an adjustable or multi-position shelf or baseboard to move up or down when the column itself cannot raise enough. Kind of a big box with shelf supports every few inches, maybe on castors to facilitate it moving around. In the old days even "Popular Mechanics" etc ran DIY articles to build home darkroom stuff like that. It was that "popular". Paint at least the insides of that box flat black, as the sides will often be hit with over-spill of the larger projection.

 

[Dwig]

You can always permanently attach a piece of paper to the base of your magnasight or grain focuser. Another hazard of long exposures - sometimes one is forced to project all the way to the floor for a big enlargement. Somewhere I have a print with a crisp white silhouette of a large spider that rested on the paper during a long exposure!

For average-size printing, it's great to build an enlarger stand that has an adjustable or multi-position shelf or baseboard to move up or down when the column itself cannot raise enough. Kind of a big box with shelf supports every few inches, maybe on castors to facilitate it moving around. In the old days even "Popular Mechanics" etc ran DIY articles to build home darkroom stuff like that. It was that "popular". Paint at least the insides of that box flat black, as the sides will often be hit with over-spill of the larger projection.

+1

Back in the day, I kept a small piece of trimmed enlarging paper tacked to the bottom of my focuser. That way I didn't misplace it.

A light colored baseboard is handy. You can't find things lying on a black baseboard under dim safelight. My last enlarger setup had a natural wood baseboard which served well.

Easels were often white in ancient times. They began to be painted a safelight yellow in the early '60s and by the '70s the yellow was the most common color. The yellow keeps light from passing though the thinner papers and reflecting back through the base to fog the image. Some manufacturers shifted to black around the early '70s as some color printers worried about light reflection and yellow wasn't an answer.