Making a Filter Drawer for an Omega D series Enlarger

With the disappearance of my favorite graded papers, I've had to adapt my cold light for use with variable contrast printing papers. The first thing was to replace the original bluish lamp with a new Aristo V54 cold lamp designed for VC papers.

Next, I needed a way to quickly change 6" contrast printing filters. I didn't like to use a filter below the lens because of the possibility of diminishing sharpness or having problems with dust on the filters. I devised a way to adapt a filter drawer so that the diffuser disk of the cold light head was below the filter being used. This was published as an article in the March/April 2003 (vol. 24, no. 2) issue of Photo Techniques magazine. Fabrication and assembly details are given in the story.

A couple of illustrations follow showing the concept behind the filter drawer. No permanent modifications to the enlarger were needed, and it can be restored to its original state in a few minutes.

The story in Photo Techniques magazine gave dimensions for the filter drawer components, and specified materials and assembly methods. A person handy with tools may devise other fabrication or assembly methods (i.e. use a router with a Jasper circle jig to cut the round holes) or use other materials (i.e. hardboard or thin baltic birch plywood) instead of the route chosen by me and published in the story.

If you're building the filter drawer, I assume that you will be working with VC papers. Please note that Ilford Multigrade filters appear to be mislabeled. Please see my experiments with various filters and measured contrast on a couple different papers here.