Spring Cleaning, FreeCycle style

I have been giving away some stuff this week: the moderators of our local group put out a call to see more OFFERED listings. I obliged.

So I unloaded:

  • a two-seat wagon my kids have outgrown
  • a telescope
  • an old SCSI scanner
  • a sandbox

All spoken for or gone. Got a couple more things listed that are not meeting with any love, and a couple more to list when I get the particulars.


I also put out a call for old darkroom stuff and someone came across with a box of stuff.

  • Three old enlargers, with lenses. Two of ’em are unrecognizable and I think can be scrapped.
  • A bunch of developing trays, all dirty as can be, but plenty useable
  • A grain focuser, something I would never have remembered needing
  • Some tongs
  • A safelight
  • A couple of neat little old timers, one with a footswitch, for three-handed operations I can’t envision
  • A large Patterson developing tank, with three convertible reels (35/120).
  • Two easels

Quite a haul. It looks to have been in storage since 1995, if the newspaper it was all wrapped in is any guide. As noted, two of the enlargers are unrecognizable: one looks OK, and I have one already in the cupboard under the stairs that I need to drag out and look over. But it lacks a lens.

Useful to have gotten two 50mm lenses: one of them is good, I hope. The other? I have no clue. I need to take down what’s written on it and see what Google can turn up. It’s a small lens, no aperture settings, and no size info I recognize. Well, it says 5cm which == 50mm but it doesn’t look like the others, so I’m not sure if that’s what it means.

All in all, quite a trove. If those enlargers are duff, the bellows might be useful for other experiments, and it looks like one has a useful Fresnel lens. I’m sure uses can be found for that.

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