I Don't Like My Easel

High quality camera lenses and high quality enlarging lenses
deserve better. I don't want depressed center slots and four light
aluminum blades spoiling the results. The depressed three slotted
easels warp the paper upwardly and the blades will not hold the
paper flat to the easel's surface.

Are single size easels the off-the-shelf answer? Maybe a Beseler
with it's steel blades? Of course for really flat, sticky back or
vacuum easels are best. I've read of 3M's blue-can sticky giving
very good results. What to put it on though? Dan

On 9/7/2004 4:50 PM Dan Quinn spake thus:

High quality camera lenses and high quality enlarging lenses
deserve better. I don't want depressed center slots and four light
aluminum blades spoiling the results. The depressed three slotted
easels warp the paper upwardly and the blades will not hold the
paper flat to the easel's surface.

Are single size easels the off-the-shelf answer? Maybe a Beseler
with it's steel blades? Of course for really flat, sticky back or
vacuum easels are best. I've read of 3M's blue-can sticky giving
very good results. What to put it on though? Dan

I recommend Speed-Ezls (sp?). Nice and flat, so long as you're using standard
size papers.


--
Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a
really easy way: stop participating in it.

- Noam Chomsky

On 9/7/2004 4:50 PM Dan Quinn spake thus:

High quality camera lenses and high quality enlarging lenses
deserve better. I don't want depressed center slots and four light
aluminum blades spoiling the results. The depressed three slotted
easels warp the paper upwardly and the blades will not hold the
paper flat to the easel's surface.

Are single size easels the off-the-shelf answer? Maybe a Beseler
with it's steel blades? Of course for really flat, sticky back or
vacuum easels are best. I've read of 3M's blue-can sticky giving
very good results. What to put it on though? Dan

I recommend Speed-Ezls (sp?). Nice and flat, so long as you're using standard
size papers.


--
Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a
really easy way: stop participating in it.

- Noam Chomsky

Dan Quinn wrote:
High quality camera lenses and high quality enlarging lenses
deserve better. I don't want depressed center slots and four light
aluminum blades spoiling the results. The depressed three slotted
easels warp the paper upwardly and the blades will not hold the
paper flat to the easel's surface.

Are single size easels the off-the-shelf answer? Maybe a Beseler
with it's steel blades? Of course for really flat, sticky back or
vacuum easels are best. I've read of 3M's blue-can sticky giving
very good results. What to put it on though? Dan

I like the Saunders single-size eazels. I am not sure who is making that
product line now. Calumet have some Saunders eazels in their catalog, but
not the single-size ones. I have an 8x10", an 11x14" and a 16x20".

--
.~. Jean-David Beyer Registered Linux User 85642.
/V\ Registered Machine 241939.
/( )\ Shrewsbury, New Jersey http://counter.li.org
^^-^^ 14:20:00 up 1:02, 3 users, load average: 0.18, 0.12, 0.09

Dan Quinn wrote:
High quality camera lenses and high quality enlarging lenses
deserve better. I don't want depressed center slots and four light
aluminum blades spoiling the results. The depressed three slotted
easels warp the paper upwardly and the blades will not hold the
paper flat to the easel's surface.

Are single size easels the off-the-shelf answer? Maybe a Beseler
with it's steel blades? Of course for really flat, sticky back or
vacuum easels are best. I've read of 3M's blue-can sticky giving
very good results. What to put it on though? Dan

I like the Saunders single-size eazels. I am not sure who is making that
product line now. Calumet have some Saunders eazels in their catalog, but
not the single-size ones. I have an 8x10", an 11x14" and a 16x20".

--
.~. Jean-David Beyer Registered Linux User 85642.
/V\ Registered Machine 241939.
/( )\ Shrewsbury, New Jersey http://counter.li.org
^^-^^ 14:20:00 up 1:02, 3 users, load average: 0.18, 0.12, 0.09

In article ,
Jean-David Beyer wrote:

I am not sure who is making that
product line now

Satter-Omega took most of the Saunders darkroom lines.

--
To reply no_ HPMarketing Corp.

In article ,
Jean-David Beyer wrote:

I am not sure who is making that
product line now

Satter-Omega took most of the Saunders darkroom lines.

--
To reply no_ HPMarketing Corp.

Another problem with the speed-ezls is that they don't
keep the paper really flat or immobile. That is, the
paper can move as it relaxes. Also the margins are
not always as crisp as they would be with a real blade
pressing on the paper. Nevertheless, they are pretty
good for smallish sizes.
For large paper sizes (16x20 or more) you may find that
the paper is likely to just ag down and sit on the baseboard.

Making a vaccuum easel with the right size holes
is not so easy; I built one and
then bought one (from Porters). I use it occasionally.
You might find it inconvenient figuring out how many of
the unused holes you should cover to get the right amount
of suction, and how big you should make the whole thing.

We used to argue about what color the easel should be
(my view: not white) and whether to focus on a piece of paper
or not (my view: not needed).
RJF

When battling with gnarly paper a while back, I got desperate enough
to try using some of the double-sided tape that is packed with the 3M
window sealing (weatherizing) clear sheets. It has just the right
amount of adhesion to hold paper flat and release easily without
kinking the paper. The adhesive strength is somewhere in between
masking tape and post-it note adhesive and seems just right for this
duty. It is also very thin so it isn't introducing too much
distortion of focus points.

On 7 Sep 2004 16:50:34 -0700, (Dan Quinn) wrote:

High quality camera lenses and high quality enlarging lenses
deserve better. I don't want depressed center slots and four light
aluminum blades spoiling the results. The depressed three slotted
easels warp the paper upwardly and the blades will not hold the
paper flat to the easel's surface.

Are single size easels the off-the-shelf answer? Maybe a Beseler
with it's steel blades? Of course for really flat, sticky back or
vacuum easels are best. I've read of 3M's blue-can sticky giving
very good results. What to put it on though? Dan


Craig Schroeder
craig nospam craigschroeder com

-Eschew Obfuscation-

On Sat, 11 Sep 2004 22:29:40 -0500, Craig Schroeder
wrote:

When battling with gnarly paper a while back, I got desperate enough
to try using some of the double-sided tape that is packed with the 3M
window sealing (weatherizing) clear sheets. It has just the right
amount of adhesion to hold paper flat and release easily without
kinking the paper. The adhesive strength is somewhere in between
masking tape and post-it note adhesive and seems just right for this
duty. It is also very thin so it isn't introducing too much
distortion of focus points.

On 7 Sep 2004 16:50:34 -0700, (Dan Quinn) wrote:

High quality camera lenses and high quality enlarging lenses
deserve better. I don't want depressed center slots and four light
aluminum blades spoiling the results. The depressed three slotted
easels warp the paper upwardly and the blades will not hold the
paper flat to the easel's surface.

Are single size easels the off-the-shelf answer? Maybe a Beseler
with it's steel blades? Of course for really flat, sticky back or
vacuum easels are best. I've read of 3M's blue-can sticky giving
very good results. What to put it on though? Dan


Another easel material, that has worked in the past, is a nice big
hunk of glass, first you get a piece of thin foam rubber or felt,
about 2cm larger then the largest print you can make, glue that to a
piece of plywood the same size. You put the printing paper on top,
line it up the way you want, add the paper and your sheet of glass.

it's heavy so it will hold the paper flat, and it's clear so the
optical effect is small. You need to be careful though, it's easy to
break a piece of glass, and you need to be very careful about keeping
it clean. A goof idea is a piece of lintless cloth, this is put over
the glass between uses, to keep dust and dirt off it.

W