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  #1  
Old 9th January 2022, 03:45 PM
Nat Polton Nat Polton is offline
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Default DIY Beseler style Borderless Easel.

Has anybody used a Beseler Borderless Easel?
Are they genuinely borderless?

Secondhand they are very expensive for what they are, so I am looking forward to making my own version from a slotted MDF board, some chamfered batons plus an assortment of domed, square shouldered coach bolts and a few washers and wing nuts. All available from my scraps box.

If the prototype works I think a large and small version would be handy.

So,
are the originals truly borderless, and are they any good apart from the fibre paper curling problem.
I mainly use RC papers so that should not be much of a problem.


heers.
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  #2  
Old 9th January 2022, 04:44 PM
Alan Clark Alan Clark is offline
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Nat, I have never seen a Beseler borderless easel, but looking at pictures of them I can see that you should have no difficulty making your own version from the materials you describe.
But there is a much simpler way to make a borderless easel.
Take a flat board, paint it white, then draw your paper sizes on it in pencil or thin black pen. Then very lightly spray it with spray mount adhesive. Then give it a light rub over with a cloth to take some of the bite out of the adhesive. Now you can lay a sheet of photographic paper in place and it will stay flat during exposure under the enlarger, but be easy to remove after exposure.
I used an "easel" like this for a good few years, and it worked well. You have to re-spray with adhesive from time to time, of course.

Alan
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Old 9th January 2022, 05:10 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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Personally, I like a lovely white border in both b/w and colour.

Whenever I've sent C41 films to be d&p'd, I always tick the option for white borders.

Each to their own.

Terry S

P.S. In fact, just looking at Beseler's site, I can't quite work out how they achieve a borderless print? I once had four of Paterson's magnetic corners that helped to give you borderless prints, so maybe they are similar to these?

https://www.beselerphoto.com/photography-easels/

Also, if you are intending to use FB papers with the easel, the last comment / #3, is worth noting:

https://www.photrio.com/forum/thread...s-easel.68487/

Last edited by Terry S; 9th January 2022 at 05:27 PM.
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  #4  
Old 9th January 2022, 07:20 PM
Nat Polton Nat Polton is offline
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The way that I interpret the functioning is, two of the four knobs are loosened, the paper is then placed against the fixed strip. The loose strip is moved along the slots until it touches the paper, and clamped in position with the screw knobs

The moveable strips have a slight chamfer along the edges that touch the paper. The edges of the strips facing each other are angled so that the top edges are closer than the bottom edge. A bit like the tongue of a dovetail joint.
The light beam from the lens is angled outwards towards the enlarger base. The chamfer on the inner side of the strips has to be a bit steeper than the angle of the light beam so no shadow is formed on the paper (no white border).

Cheers.
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