Omega C760 Meltdown: I am considering a repair of my old Omega photo enlarger. A part of the focus mechanism liquified and oozed out like a sticky syrup. I was wondering why blurryness...

ruzbynik Loc: Victoria BC

I am considering a repair of my old Omega photo enlarger. A part of the focus mechanism liquified and oozed out like a sticky syrup. I was wondering why blurryness was creeping into my work. This was my best enlarger complete with a dichroic color head and Nikkor lenses. Any reasonable advice on dealing with this calamity? I may not return to the chemical darkroom but my son is interested.

Orphoto Loc: Oregon

Yuck! Longshot suggestion. There may have been some form of lubricating oil or grease in the focussing gear track. If that is the cause probably able to clean up and freshly lubricate. Bellows material would be especially sensitive to ripping.

ruzbynik Loc: Victoria BC

Orphoto wrote:

Yuck! Longshot suggestion. There may have been some form of lubricating oil or grease in the focussing gear track. If that is the cause probably able to clean up and freshly lubricate. Bellows material would be especially sensitive to ripping.

Good guess but I have opened the mechanism and it appears that some parts have melted into a gooey mess.

medphotog Loc: Witness protection land

Hmm, you may have to see if you can find a new(used) bellows assembly because I think yours is past "it's seen better days." Keep the head though. You can invert it on a copy stand and duplicate a ton of slides. Did it with a D5 head for ~12 years.. did a *huge* job for the dental school. 20 rolls at a time, processed base to base in an Imagemaker 10 reel tube. Then again I'm thinking analog... and chromes... ya know "ancient times."

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Look at purchasing another one. The prices I've seen for these are reasonable enough to warrant purchase over trying to clean/repair.
--Bob

ruzbynik wrote:

I am considering a repair of my old Omega photo enlarger. A part of the focus mechanism liquified and oozed out like a sticky syrup. I was wondering why blurryness was creeping into my work. This was my best enlarger complete with a dichroic color head and Nikkor lenses. Any reasonable advice on dealing with this calamity? I may not return to the chemical darkroom but my son is interested.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

ruzbynik wrote:

Good guess but I have opened the mechanism and it appears that some parts have melted into a gooey mess.

Were you using the correct bulb and/or was it left on for extended periods? Enlargers are designed to be on for short periods - just long enough to focus and expose with off periods between exposures. For me, the first question would be why did the enlarger get hot enough to actually melt internal parts?

rfmaude41 Loc: Lancaster, Texas (DFW area)

ruzbynik wrote:

Good guess but I have opened the mechanism and it appears that some parts have melted into a gooey mess.

Some parts of what have turned "gooey"?

ruzbynik Loc: Victoria BC

rfmaude41 wrote:

Some parts of what have turned "gooey"?

Parts inside the focus stage which drive the negative carrier.

ruzbynik Loc: Victoria BC

medphotog wrote:

Hmm, you may have to see if you can find a new(use... (show quote)

Thanks. I like the copy idea.

ruzbynik Loc: Victoria BC

TriX wrote:

Were you using the correct bulb and/or was it left on for extended periods? Enlargers are designed to be on for short periods - just long enough to focus and expose with off periods between exposures. For me, the first question would be why did the enlarger get hot enough to actually melt internal parts?

Yes it has the correct bulb. Apparently the first 2 years of production of this enlarger had faulty synthetic material in the focus stage that would deteriorate and eventually liquify. Strange but true.

ruzbynik Loc: Victoria BC

rmalarz wrote:

Look at purchasing another one. The prices I've seen for these are reasonable enough to warrant purchase over trying to clean/repair.
--Bob

I think you are right. The melted stuff resists the solvents I have tried. Still is some nostalgic value in this old enlarger.

medphotog Loc: Witness protection land

ruzbynik wrote:

Thanks. I like the copy idea.

Once you dial in the filtration it's really fast and easy.

Henlopen Loc: Lewes, Delaware

ruzbynik wrote:

Yes it has the correct bulb. Apparently the first 2 years of production of this enlarger had faulty synthetic material in the focus stage that would deteriorate and eventually liquify. Strange but true.

I've seen rubber drive belts do similar things in consumer electronics equipment. I mention this because my Bessler 23c negative carrier had a drive belt that did this also.