Enlarger Alignment Laser Module – January
13, 2008
For the most part because of my printing style and focus on portraiture
precise enlarger alignment just seemed to be a whole lot more trouble
than it was worth. Besides my Saunders
4500 II Enlarger didn’t have any easy mechanisms for precise
alignment anyway.
But I’ve been focusing on 8x10 contact prints lately and got used
to the resolution and sharpness inherent in that process. And now that
I’m going back to a project where I’ll be enlarging negatives
to a great degree, I wanted a precisely aligned enlarger to maintain the
sharpness that I saw in my contact prints as closely as possible. Since
I wasn’t printing portraits, the subject matter demanded all the
sharpness I could get, and no matter what I did I always seemed to be
disappointed. I knew I could get better results.
So the first thing I wanted to do was precisely align my enlarger. I’d
heard about all kinds of tricks involving levels, mirrors, and all sorts
of black magic. But by far the most highly recommended tool for enlarger
alignment was the Versalab
Parallel Alignment Gauge. The problem was it cost $190 and I wasn’t
about to spend that kind of money for a piece of glass and a laser module
embedded in a box. So I did some research and found some hints about making my own laser
alignment module in the excellent book, Way
Beyond Monochrome. So rather than throw away $190 I decided to make
my own laser alignment tool.
It turned out to be quite simple actually. First I bought a laser module
online for $19 at a place called lasersale.com.
Then I went to Lowes and bought a simple round block of wood for about
$3. I took the block of wood and drilled a hole straight through, making
sure that it was the same diameter as the laser module. I then inserted
the laser module in the top of the block and glued it in place. Through
the hole in the bottom I connected the laser module to a 3.0v watch battery.
On the top of the wood, I also added some white plastic so the reflected
laser beam is clearly visible when in use.
Finally I put 3 screws in the bottom of the wood block so even though
the laser module might not be perfectly level in the drilled hole, I can
adjust the screws to make the entire module precisely level. This can
be done by rotating the device while holding it in place and marking the
laser trail on the ceiling. If the laser makes more than a single spot
on the ceiling as the module rotates through 360 degrees, the laser is
not perfectly level. If not, then all you need to do is adjust the screws
until it is.
Below is a picture of the finished laser module.
Throw in a mirror and an hour of work and you’ve got a perfectly
functional laser enlarger alignment tool for under $30. All you need to
do is put the mirror in the negative carrier or hold it against the face
of the lens and watch the reflected laser as it returns back down to the
white area on top of the alignment tool. If the two planes of interest
are aligned the laser will reflect back to itself and you won’t
see anything. Otherwise the reflected laser will display a dot somewhere
in the white area on top of the alignment module. So all you have to do
is adjust the different enlarger planes until the reflected dot disappears
and then you’ll know you have perfect enlarger alignment. It’s
as simple as that and much better than paying $190 for a tool with the
exact same functionality.
Best of all it works. Along with this tool and some masking tape I was
able to shim the negative carrier in my enlarger to make it parallel to
the surface of my printing easel. Once those two planes were aligned I
did the same thing to make the sure the lens plane was parallel to printing
easel as well. Once all three planes were aligned I put in a negative
in the carrier and lo and behold, my enlarger alignment was perfect. Using
a grain focuser I was able to see razor sharp grain across the entire
print, including all four corners, while I focused a medium format negative
for significant enlargement. Now I’m all set to make razor sharp
print, not to mention I saved $160.
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