Author Topic: I just made/fixed ... (Read 126493 times)

Francois · « **Reply #600 on:** November 30, 2022, 10:47:05 PM »

I guess we can all relate to that

collodion · « **Reply #601 on:** December 02, 2022, 05:46:32 PM »

Beautiful job on your restoration Francois,

and kudos on your adapter lens board!

Francois · « **Reply #602 on:** December 02, 2022, 06:16:56 PM »

Thanks

irv_b · « **Reply #603 on:** December 02, 2022, 07:57:09 PM »

Quote from: Francois on November 26, 2022, 08:18:38 PM

Finally I won!
This project has been kicking my butt in every imaginable way. Finicky fit, blind measurements, design mistakes and everything in between.
But now, it's finally over!
I've had this Burke & James Grover 4x5 for over 20 years. When I got it, it was in really bad shape. At some point it had been set on fire (there was a spot of charred paint), the bellows looked like they had been chewed by a rottweiler, it was missing some parts. But on the up side the lens on it was good. So I moved the optics to a hand made Graflex lens board. But I just couldn't leave a broken camera alone, so I restored it. But I was still missing a lens. So I decided to make an adapter.

So, I can now mount those Graflex lens boards on it. It took me 5 versions of the frame to get it right... a far cry from my usual "get it done in 3 or less" mode of operation.

Here are the photos.

Great work there Francois, that looks so tasty, that would be a real conversation started if you manage to get out on the streets with it.

Francois · « **Reply #604 on:** December 02, 2022, 09:11:31 PM »

It would definitely attract crowds that's for sure.

Bryan · « **Reply #605 on:** January 30, 2023, 12:14:49 AM »

Continuing to work on lens boards for my Crown Graphic 34, originally posted about it here: https://filmwasters.com/forum/index.php?topic=8655.msg139760#msg139760. I made a new mold and figured out a few ways to make some improvements. The one on the left has an aluminum face, stronger, flatter and looks better. I have a 170mm f/6.3 Kodak Anastigmat mounted in it. The one on the right has an extension since the 30cm f/9 Zeiss APO-Tessar was just slightly out of the range of the full extension of the camera. I used a section of 2 inch PVC pipe to make the extension and poured the plastic around it. I can focus as close as about 2 meters with it.

Francois · « **Reply #606 on:** January 30, 2023, 03:04:01 PM »

Looks pretty good.
You don't have problems with air bubbles when doing the epoxy?

Bryan · « **Reply #607 on:** January 30, 2023, 04:46:13 PM »

Quote from: Francois on January 30, 2023, 03:04:01 PM

Looks pretty good.
You don't have problems with air bubbles when doing the epoxy?

The Polyurethane resin I'm using is quite thin right after it's mixed so bubbles aren't a problem. You have to work quickly, it hardens kind of fast. The mold is quite tight where the lip of the lens board is so I inject the resin into those areas with a Pipette. Then I massage the mold a little to force any air out. The only place I really had problems with bubbles was when I made the mold. The silicone material is thick and it has to be mixed thoroughly, hard not to make bubbles. One way to do away with that is to put it in a vacuum chamber after pouring the mold. I didn't have that so I do get a few bumps from those bubbles, they are easy to cut off with a razor knife.

collodion · « **Reply #608 on:** January 30, 2023, 06:19:23 PM »

Nice job Bryan, those look great !!

How do you like the old Kodak lens? I have one of those and Ive always wondered how it would perform on 4x5.

Just a thought....But one other thing you may want to try for mold making is "Dental Lab Stone". Ive used it on several mold projects and its useful stuff. Amazon even sells it...

Francois · « **Reply #609 on:** January 30, 2023, 08:56:06 PM »

Quote from: Bryan on January 30, 2023, 04:46:13 PM

Quote from: Francois on January 30, 2023, 03:04:01 PM
Looks pretty good.
You don't have problems with air bubbles when doing the epoxy?
The Polyurethane resin I'm using is quite thin right after it's mixed so bubbles aren't a problem. You have to work quickly, it hardens kind of fast. The mold is quite tight where the lip of the lens board is so I inject the resin into those areas with a Pipette. Then I massage the mold a little to force any air out. The only place I really had problems with bubbles was when I made the mold. The silicone material is thick and it has to be mixed thoroughly, hard not to make bubbles. One way to do away with that is to put it in a vacuum chamber after pouring the mold. I didn't have that so I do get a few bumps from those bubbles, they are easy to cut off with a razor knife.

I know that model makers often use pressure to shrink bubbles instead of out-gasing them using a vacuum. I figure it's something that would be fairly easy to do using an old pressure cooker and a compressor. But I don't know how well it would work with silicone.

Bryan · « **Reply #610 on:** January 30, 2023, 09:40:12 PM »

Quote from: collodion on January 30, 2023, 06:19:23 PM

Nice job Bryan, those look great !!

How do you like the old Kodak lens? I have one of those and Ive always wondered how it would perform on 4x5.
Just a thought....But one other thing you may want to try for mold making is "Dental Lab Stone". Ive used it on several mold projects and its useful stuff. Amazon even sells it...

I've had that lens sitting in a drawer for years and have never used it. I don't even know what camera it came from. Doing a little searching I think it was from a No. 3A Autographic Pocket Kodak which had a 3-1/4" by 5-1/2" film format. From what I have read it's a great lens and should be able to cover up to 5X7. It's often used on 4X5. I'm looking forward to giving it a try.

I used to have something similar to the Dental Lab Stone but I don't think it would have worked well for this mold. I needed it to be flexible so I could get it out of the mold without doing damage. The silicone can be re-used many times.

Francois · « **Reply #611 on:** January 31, 2023, 04:23:16 PM »

And silicone is what is used in the modeling industry.
Sometimes they do an alginate mold first that they encase in silicone, but that's only useful for very precise details.

Kai-san · « **Reply #612 on:** February 08, 2023, 02:45:13 PM »

Since I wear glasses I always try to find diopters for my cameras viewfinders. It's easier to find the newer the camera is, but some of the old ones are difficult to find. Nikon made diopters for the Nikon SP, but if you are lucky enough to find one today you have to be prepared for some considerable pain in your wallet. But things can be modified, and I found a solution on the Nikon Historical Society. You will need a diopter for the Nikon EM, some small files, a slide caliper, some fine sandpaper (#200 to #300) and a bit of thin cardboard (postcard) to protect the glass while filing. If you are a bit careful it will fit very nicely and it's hard to tell that it's not original. Some of the round Nikon diopters will fit on other cameras too, I've used them on Zeiss and Fuji cameras.
The pictures below show the diopter + before and after.
NB! Diopters are the same as correction lenses.

Francois · « **Reply #613 on:** February 08, 2023, 03:21:50 PM »

And it's probably a lot easier to do than my usual 3D print and cut custom cut lens to fit.

Kai-san · « **Reply #614 on:** February 08, 2023, 09:48:28 PM »

I spent about an hour on that job, so it's quickly done. Still trying to find diopters for Exa and Exakta, not sure if there ever was any. I might try to modify something that looks similar.

Francois · « **Reply #615 on:** February 09, 2023, 02:31:43 PM »

Personally, I'd go for the modification route, especially if you can find something really cheap that almost fits.
If not, there's no other choice but cutting up a pair of cheap reading glasses and printing a custom adapter for it.

collodion · « **Reply #616 on:** February 16, 2023, 06:51:56 PM »

Nice job!! and great idea on sourcing available diopters. I think I'm going to give this a try

ManuelL · « **Reply #617 on:** April 09, 2023, 10:31:12 AM »

I just made myself a low tech UV light box. It is a crude design and took less than half an hour to put together with a Eurobox and some cable binders, but it does the job. The first test cyanotype looks good, only a stop overexposed.

Francois · « **Reply #618 on:** April 09, 2023, 05:28:05 PM »

That's going to be a good printer

Pete_R · « **Reply #619 on:** April 09, 2023, 05:47:59 PM »

Quote from: ManuelL on April 09, 2023, 10:31:12 AM

I just made myself a low tech UV light box. It is a crude design and took less than half an hour to put together with a Eurobox and some cable binders, but it does the job. The first test cyanotype looks good, only a stop overexposed.

What light source are you using? Looks like LEDs?

ManuelL · « **Reply #620 on:** April 09, 2023, 07:32:39 PM »

Quote from: Pete_R on April 09, 2023, 05:47:59 PM

What light source are you using? Looks like LEDs?

Yes, I used some black light LED lamps I got from Amazon. There is a bit of a gap between the lamps, but as long as they are more than 20cm from the print frame this is not an issue. The lamps are getting quite warm after a while. This is the reason I used a this basket like box and not a solid one.

Francois · « **Reply #621 on:** April 09, 2023, 09:11:56 PM »

The good thing about blacklights is that they fall smack-dab in the middle of the sensitivity curve for cyanotype.
And as a bonus you can use them at your next party 😁

Francois · « **Reply #622 on:** May 08, 2023, 05:37:43 PM »

Finally!
This has got to be the longest, most annoying, most crushingly depressing thing I've ever built.
Last December, I began to want to have a new camera. But I didn't want to spend, so that left me with no option other than the DIY route.
I began thinking about a 35mm pinhole camera. But I didn't want to just repurpose something I have in a drawer, I wanted something completely new.
I wanted something that would do square format on 35mm. So... that's how it all began.
I thought to myself "hey! I know FreeCAD, I have a 3D printer, it can't be that hard!"
yeah, right. $:-\$
I must here quote a wise man who said:"We embark on such projects not because they are easy, but because we're too stupid to really know how hard they really are."
So, I embarked on what would be the biggest nightmare project I've ever built, complete with sleepless nights, doubt, and the perpetual feeling of failure that was coming back to smack me in the head at every revision.
And revisions, there were. The initial design had 7... and I had to abandon it because it was too hard to maintain. Then, the second design got 10 revisions before this. Lots of parts that didn't work, some that couldn't be printed at all. I had to go through more than half a spool of filament just to get to this point.
So, now that it's complete and seems to be working, I'm done with it.
I did a test with some paper and there aren't any light leaks. The frame advance counter actually works (I didn't want to use a clicker like everybody else does).
So, here's the camera and the first test. Now I need to figure out how not to put mu knuckles in the frame

Adam Doe · « **Reply #623 on:** May 09, 2023, 05:02:25 PM »

Nice work Francois! I started on a few 3D printed pinhole designs. One, quite simply a box you can fit a 4x5 film holder on, works OK. Then when I attempted to create a compact design for 120 film... well let's just say I was too stupid to know how hard it was going to be

Francois · « **Reply #624 on:** May 09, 2023, 07:29:59 PM »

Welcome to the club

I must say that going for 35mm is extra hard as you need some way to measure the frames without letting light in.
Most designs use a clicker, but to me that's just bad design.

120 has the advantage that the frames can be counted through a simple hole.

But if you want some really nice designs, check out the work by Todd Schlemmer.
(https://www.thingiverse.com/schlem/designs)

I printed and modified two of his 4x5 cameras and they work well. Granted they needed a bit of help to make them light tight (painted hockey tape) and plenty of cyanoacrylate glue, but they're worth printing.

astrobeck · « **Reply #625 on:** May 23, 2023, 05:47:09 PM »

"We embark on such projects not because they are easy, but because we're too stupid to really know how hard they really are.'
That could be the motto or mantra for most of us here at times.
In my case it's just pure stubbornness. I think it should work, when it obviously wont! EVER!

Francois · « **Reply #626 on:** May 23, 2023, 09:26:14 PM »

It's funny because in the workshop I have a copy of this poster that was made by Austin Kleon

I feel that it fits this motto to a tee 😊

Bryan · « **Reply #627 on:** June 30, 2023, 10:50:13 PM »

I've had this lens for a long time and used it on my Rex Laboratories camera a few times but haven't been able to use it on my Crown Graphic. The lens is a G. Rodenstock Munchen Doppel Anastigmat Eurynar 24cm, f/6.8. The Rex Laboratories camera is not a very good camera and I have it converted to use as a 4X5 enlarger right now. The problem with the Crown Graphic is it has no built in shutter like the Speed Graphic and there is no room to use a Packard shutter behind the lens board. I could use the lens cap but that limits me to very long exposures. I think I can get up to around 1/15 with the Packard shutter. So my solution was to build this adapter that allows room for the Packard shutter behind the wood lens board.

This setup also gives me some extension for the long 24cm focal length. The bracket that holds the lens on may get changed to something better at a later time. It seems to work pretty good with the elastic cord.

Francois · « **Reply #628 on:** June 30, 2023, 11:03:40 PM »

Packard shutters are really nice for those applications.
But a bit out of my budget... but I plan on eventually making this instead (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6033871).

Bryan · « **Reply #629 on:** July 01, 2023, 05:28:43 AM »

Quote from: Francois on June 30, 2023, 11:03:40 PM

Packard shutters are really nice for those applications.
But a bit out of my budget... but I plan on eventually making this instead (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6033871).

That’s an interesting project, someone needs to come up with a modern Packard shutter like that. I’m sure my box could have been 3D printed but I’m still working in the Stone Age.

Francois · « **Reply #630 on:** July 01, 2023, 03:14:04 PM »

Quote from: Bryan on July 01, 2023, 05:28:43 AM

I’m sure my box could have been 3D printed but I’m still working in the Stone Age.

Don't worry about that, lots of things are more rapidly done in wood than 3D printed plastic.
I've begun using 3D printing mostly for the parts that would be a pain to do by hand. I must say that 6 months of designing a pinhole camera had a definite impact on me.

EarlJam · « **Reply #631 on:** July 01, 2023, 04:27:31 PM »

Many (many) years ago I played around with a guillotine shutter. The one described here is similar in concept to the Graflex focal plane. I think it would be reasonably simple to make a set with different slot heights for various exposure times, and at minimal cost.

https://richardman.photo/2020/05/guillotine-vs-packard-shutters/

Francois · « **Reply #632 on:** July 01, 2023, 10:22:41 PM »

I've already done that with two handmade cameras.
They are quite lovely as they are both silent and smoother than anything I've ever encountered.

collodion · « **Reply #633 on:** August 17, 2023, 05:25:13 PM »

In the spirit of DIY,

Last year we had a pretty hard winter and a number of trees fell. So not wanting to let good lumber go to waste. I decided to use some Madrone wood, a hardwood common here in California.

This January I came across an old Tachihara 6"x10" format back and film holders on the bay. My thought was to adapt it to fit my old 8x10 view camera, and try out this odd...panoramic format.

For anyone that is interested.....Below is a link to a folder on my flickr page...since when ever I try to resize stuff for here, it looks like a hot mess!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/100047767@N04/albums/72177720310559844

Cheers,
Jonathan

Francois · « **Reply #634 on:** August 17, 2023, 11:00:06 PM »

Now that is a fine looking reducer back.
I had never seen wood like that before. It does have a pretty nice grain structure.
Is it really hard like persimon or softer like balsa (which is in the hardwood category BTW)?

Bryan · « **Reply #635 on:** August 18, 2023, 03:05:54 AM »

Quote from: collodion on August 17, 2023, 05:25:13 PM

In the spirit of DIY,

Last year we had a pretty hard winter and a number of trees fell. So not wanting to let good lumber go to waste. I decided to use some Madrone wood, a hardwood common here in California.

This January I came across an old Tachihara 6"x10" format back and film holders on the bay. My thought was to adapt it to fit my old 8x10 view camera, and try out this odd...panoramic format.

For anyone that is interested.....Below is a link to a folder on my flickr page...since when ever I try to resize stuff for here, it looks like a hot mess!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/100047767@N04/albums/72177720310559844

Cheers,
Jonathan

Nice work, it looks great! We have a lot of madrone trees up here in Washington. It’s a very hard and dense wood. If you pick up a log you’ll swear it was made of lead. It’s the best firewood, high BTU value and burns for a long time.

Francois · « **Reply #636 on:** August 18, 2023, 04:16:51 PM »

Here, we mostly have maple, oak and sadly no more ash as it's all being eaten by bugs.
You can still find a bit of birch here and there, but all the rest is pretty much pine and spruce.
So, anything other than that feel pretty exotic to me.