I am setting up a darkroom for two college publications. When I took the contract for the job, the darkroom had already been constructed--revolving door, ventilation, safelights, sink, countertop. Unfortunately, the countertop is 4inches too short for the bases of two Beseler 67XLD/dichro67S enlargers. The alternative solution to a $1000.00 countertop replacement is to bolt the enlarger bases directly and securely to the existing countertop. Can anyone identify a problem with this that I have overlooked? Has any one done this, and if so, how does it work for you? Thank you for your input. It is greatly appreciated. --M.C.

-- Mike Chappelear (mikechappy@hotmail.com), August 17, 2000

Answers

It is actually the best way to do it. Make sure you have proper backing to strengthen the mount and most important, do make sure your counter is SOLID.

-- Scott Walton (scotlynn@shore.net), August 17, 2000.

If the weight is at the back of baseboard, as it is with most enlargers, a four-inch overhang at the front shouldn't pose a risk of the enlarger toppling forward, should it? Set an enlarger on the counter and try to tip it. I bet you can't lean on the front of the baseboard hard enough to tip it, but you might break the counter. The weight-bearing ability of the counter is probably more crucial in your case than the four-inch deficiency in depth.

-- Keith Nichols (knichols@iopener.net), August 17, 2000.

Mike, one of the things you might want to discuss with the darkroom manager is how big their easels are that they will use for printing.

In other words, for mounting the enlargers you only need a countertop of a few inches wide, into which you can screw the base of the enlarger. The question then is, is there room under the enlarger to hold an easel big enough for the size of the enlargements they are planning to make.

If there is now not enough countertop to fully support the base boar - as Keith points out, that is not really a problem for the enlarger, - but it might be a problem in that the area will not support an easel without canting it a bit.

One solution might be to cut pieces of plywood about the size of the enlarger baseboard, and screw them to the countertop then set the enlarger on top of them. Should only cost a couple of $$$'s per enlarger.

chris

-- Christian Harkness (chris.harkness@eudoramail.com), August 18, 2000.

About the only problem with the short (I assume front to back) counter tops is that the front feet fall off the edge and make the whole thing tilted. You can just move the front feet back to rest on the counter.

Or you can bolt them to the counter top. My darkroom has a low ceiling. Too low for my enlarger to set on the counter top. So it is bolted to the counter top. Most counter tops are at least 3/4" thick, and many enlarger bases are the same.

-- Terry Carraway (TCarraway@compuserve.com), August 18, 2000.