Had one of these precision milled from plain steel by a local machine shop and painted matte black. Chose steel, 1st, because the shop had 1.2 mm material in stock, which would allow for shimming to greater height if necessary, and 2nd, for the ability to try magnets for film holding at some later date.
I used the dimensions on the original drawing, except for the height of the inside hole. I specified 246 mm, not 248 mm, based on my own measurements which showed that to be the proper height for the actual image area of my negatives. I shot with mostly older Fidelity and Lisco holders; perhaps the original author's negatives were different.
The frame came out flat, and did not require taping to the scanner. The slightly greater weight of steel vs. aluminum or plastic helped. And as you can see from the attached, I needed very little magic tape to stretch and attach a negative. If worried about scratching the scanner glass, one could either put a bit of tape or the original Epson film area guide under the frame . However, the frame was perfectly smooth and deburred inside and out.
My machinist was John Zug at Quicksilver Precision Tool in Florissant, Colorado, a small town west of Colorado Springs. (
http://www.quicksilvertool.com/) As he says on his homepage, he specializes in custom surgical instruments and positioner fabrication. The execution was excellent++. Serious work — see the attached photos. It could've been made by Epson. I paid seventy-five dollars with painting, but John said he feels he would need to get at least ninety dollars to do them one off manually. He does have a CNC mill however, and said there could be significant savings if he could get orders for at least five at a time, which would justify programming the part for the CNC machine. Other materials are available. Shipping would be extra.
John gave me his permission to post his info, and would welcome inquiries directly from forum members.
Originally Posted by axs810
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