Topic: I just made...

[Francois]

Yes, I once again decided to build something a bit special.
Last summer, there was a neighboring city that held a city wide garage sale day. On the next day, I went to see if there were anything good that got thrown in the bin. And to my surprise I found a surprising quantity of items in good shape. Among them were plenty of ladies leather handbags. So I picked up a few thinking that there must be something useful to do with nice leather like that. I dismantled them (you'd be surprised at all the stuff they use to line them) and decided to use them to solve one of those nagging problems.

Do you have a camera that doesn't have any strap lugs? In those cases you have to use the bottom half of an everready case. But what if this case doesn't exist like in the case of my Sprocket Rocket? Well all that's left to do is build one. Not easy to measure when you never built anything like that. It turns out that my first attempt was too small. This second one could use a bit more space but it works.

Stitching is all by hand. Side strap holders are made from frame hanger loops held by a Parisian paper clip. Lots of work and especially learning to use a sewing awl... I'm pretty proud of my first build!

[Kai-san]

Francois, that's very nice! I've just fixed a handstrap to the tripod mount on my Rocket, but this is a much better solution. A thicker / stiffer leather would probably make it easier to measure out, but a bit harder to sew. And then we are probably not talking ladies handbags any more. By the way, I can already imagine a horde of guys invading second hand shops to buy ladies handbags.............

[Indofunk]

And if you don't mind pleather, then you can stop at any one of the thousands of handbag carts that line the streets of NYC. I can't tell you how many times I've been walking down the street, minding my own business, only to run right into a lady (or gaggle of ladies) who have stopped dead in their tracks whilst screaming "LOOK! HANDBAGS!!!"

[Francois]

A thicker / stiffer leather would probably make it easier to measure out, but a bit harder to sew.

The problem is that I actually measured the base and didn't think of the protruding clips...
I can also back the leather with something else...
Lucky for me, it didn't have that very peculiar grandma smell 

I just never could understand a thing when I see ladies bunching up to get certain items at sidewalk sales... I've seen the same thing last summer at a ladies lingerie store. There were a dozen ladies fighting over bras... no matter the size they just had to get them! So far I have yet to see a bunch of guys fighting over some tighty whities... though it's probably because I don't shop in those neighborhoods...

But still, I'm pretty proud of this thing. I even went through the trouble of putting little leather rounds inside so as to protect the camera from the scratching brackets...

[Francois]

I must be on a roll!
First it was the cocokodak, then the case for the sprocket rocket and now, I finished working on the restoration of that Burke & James monorail that I got nearly 20 years ago and that just sat there in a very sorry state.

The battleship gray paint had started to flake off. The tripod mounting block was missing. Bellows were totally shot beyond repair.

Now that I got fresh bellows from Sandeha's leftover sale, the camera is almost completely back to life. All it needs now is a lens, but that's a small thing then compared to all the love it needed before. I'm looking into stripping an old Kodak folder from its lens, provided I can find one with enough coverage.

In details, the camera is a Burke & James Grover monorail in the 4x5 format.

Here are a few pictures.

[Sandeha Lynch]

Brilliant, Francois. 

Screw lenses - just make a pinhole.  With 4x5 the resolution can be really crisp.

[Bryan]

I have used a 131mm f/7.9 lens from a Kodak folder on my Crown Graphic.  It had good coverage but didn't allow for much movement.  I would go for a 116 or 616 film camera since the film size is only about a half inch smaller than 4x5.

[Francois]

That's what I was thinking...
But if I do so I'll have to make a recessed lens board ad I barely get 150mm between lens and groundglass when fully compressed...
This camera definitely wasn't designed with wide angles at infinity in mind!