Re: Century Studio 10A Repair Advice Needed
Harold,
Thanks for the detailed description. This will make it much easier to find the parts if I go that route. I am hoping I can borrow the drill and bits from a friend.
Eddie,
The video was great. Very helpful, thank you. It will make reassembly much, much easier.
Jonathan
Re: Century Studio 10A Repair Advice Needed
A simple and economic fix for loose screws that works for me is toothpicks. A few years back I was patching up a rat Kodak 2D. Not one screw on that camera would tighten. Simply stick a toothpick or two into the hole, snap them off, and screw away.You could add a little Elmer's wood glue for extra hold. It works great. You could get a good box of toothpicks for about a buck a box. Someone may have suggested this, but I figured I would put it out there.
Re: Century Studio 10A Repair Advice Needed
John,
That was actually my first thought, but then I talked myself out of it thinking it was too, I don't know, pedestrian? I may try that yet, however. . As I said, I can't decide. I'm guessing that the bond does not need to be bulletproof since the camera will not be abused taking portraits; so long as it holds rigidly enough over time to keep the camera back straight and doesn't give during insertion and removal of film holders.
I've never used them, but I believe the Gorilla Glue products expand as they dry. I was wondering if a glue of this type would be useful since I would benefit from the screw hole filling up from the inside with adhesive as it envelops the fastener.
Again, too many choices! At some point soon I will just bite the bullet and pick one.
Jonathan
Re: Century Studio 10A Repair Advice Needed
Jonathan, the fix works very well but you must be careful not to over do it. You don't want to many toothpicks in the hole, or glue that expands more than needed, because there is a chance of splitting the wood. You just want enough, usually two or three, to get that snug seat when you tighten down the screw.
Re: Century Studio 10A Repair Advice Needed
I found the attached "knife thread high strength hex drive" self-tapping inserts at McMaster-Carr. It looks like I would just have to drill out the existing screw holes, screw in the inserts with a hex wrench and replace the wood screws with 1/4"-20 bolts. Sidestepping the whole doweling and gluing issue would be my preference.
Any reason NOT to do it this way? (Other than the fact that it would not be keeping the camera in a fully original state, but that's not a concern for me so long as the repair is solid.)
Jonathan
Re: Century Studio 10A Repair Advice Needed
First of all, sorry about the quality of the illustration!
I have used the system you propose for making and securing extra insulating double glazed window frames. It is easy to work with.
Looking at the screws sticking out of the base, it appears that quite a lot of the original thread was in the base as well as the standard. This means that the base and standard must have been clamped together before the base screws were inserted. A geat deal of the strength of this join comes from the places in the base where this has been cut by the wood screw. The proposed solution means a drillled hole with inserted machine screw which will only be "held" by the head of the screw against a few millimeters of the screw head against the bottom base face. It would be necessary to have quite a large washer (sunken?) to make a solid join.
Re: Century Studio 10A Repair Advice Needed
I think the insert will be going through both pieces, and will be far stronger than the original.
Re: Century Studio 10A Repair Advice Needed
Steven,
Thank you for the diagram; it makes perfect sense. However, when disassembling the camera I did not have to turn the screws to remove them from the base; I was able to just push them out with my finger. This leads me to think that the threads were not engaging in the base but only within the wood of the rear standard. In other words, the holes in the base were large enough for the screws to pass through threads and all, so it may be that the original "hold" in the base was against the head of the screw anyway.
If so, I think the threaded insert plan is the way I am going to go since it won't hold much differently than the original, except that it will be with machine screws instead of wood screws. Unlike with wood screws there may be a chance that the machine screws will loosen over time, but since it is a studio camera it won't see much vigorous activity and my hope is that the screws will stay firmly in place. I've barely begun and I'm learning more about screws and fasteners than I ever thought I would. Isn't this supposed to be a photography project? Ha!
Jonathan
EDIT: Bill - I don't think the insert goes between the two pieces of wood; rather, it sets into the old screw holes in the rear standard and the machine screws feed up through the holes in the base into the threaded part like a nut. But since the wide "knife edge" cutting threads on the insert will grab into the surrounding wood I figure it should hold. At least this is my understanding. I could always just use larger diameter wood screws through both the base and the standard, I guess, but that worries me for some reason. If this doesn't work I can always try the dowel and glue method after. I'll only be out a few bucks in parts and will learn a lot in the process.
Re: Century Studio 10A Repair Advice Needed
I have checked that there is an IKEA in Portland. This may be an easier souce of the fitments you need. This is the standard system used by IKEA in knock down furniture for secure fitment with dodgy materials, like chip board and worse. They supply extra fitments at very low cost at the "return and complaints" counter!.
Re: Century Studio 10A Repair Advice Needed
Steven,
IKEA, yes of course. I'll look into it. It isn't all that far from my house. Thanks.
Jonathan