Rail Repair/Replacement Options for a 8x10 Eastman View No. 2

[Jay Decker]

Love this camera, but I think that hung one too many heavy lens off the front and the rail broke.

What are the options to repair or replace it? Have all, or at least most, of the wood that broke out.

[jcoldslabs]

I've seen a camera damaged in similar fashion that had the whole side of the broken rail cut away and replaced with a solid piece of aluminum that was machined to match the original grooves. The repair looked sturdy but was non-original and a bit glaring. (Made it look like the side of a Kodak Commercial View.) I'm not sure how you'd go about fixing the wood itself.

Jonathan

[mdarnton]

If I were doing it, I'd rout out the whole damaged area square (not up to including the track!), glue in a new piece of mahogany, and then machine the necessary grooves (it would be nice if they were saw cuts from some standard saw, as they probably were in 1910). Figuring out a nice way to handle the remains of the finger joint at the right would be a bonus (I'd probably do some diagonal cuts with spline inserts If I were just trying to get the job done in the least fancy way). For a place that does things like kitchen cabinets this would be child's play, if you could find a place smart enough to understand the necessity of doing the details just right. Basically it's a job for someone who's really good with a table saw.

[Steve Goldstein]

Contact Richard Ritter if you don't want to do it yourself.

[mdarnton]

Best idea, definitely.

[Tracy Storer]

On the Kodak that I repaired once, I was surprised to find all the grooves were not the same width, and all substantially narrower than most tablesaw blades. I used slitting saws on a Bridgeport vertical mill to cut them.

[Andy Eads]

Jay, I have an old project camera that might have the parts you need. Contact me and we can see if they match. Andy