Ground Glass/Glass Plate holder conversion?

[Fr. Mark]

I made a "frame" out of pieces of masonite for a piece of ground glass for my home built 8x10 then planed and sanded it down to have the correct distance to the film plane for my 5 film holders that were once some sort of standard but not the modern ANSI standard. I slip this into the place where the film holder goes. It seemed a lot less fiddly to build than a spring back. I got the idea from this link: http://home.earthlink.net/~eahoo/camera.html

[plaubel]

Plaubel: Would you share some pictures and a description of how you did the conversi

If you could give me a little time, yes, I will show some pics and will try to explain.

Ritchie

[Drew Bedo]

Sure; take all the time you need.

[cuypers1807]

Drew,
Here is a photo of the ground glass from my Razzle:

[Drew Bedo]

Just what I imagined the conversion would be.

Thanks for taking the time.

[plaubel]

I took an old 9x12 Plattenkamera and builded a kind of international back for her; here I needed a groundglass carrier, so I prepared a fidelity film holder.
Measurements were given, except the new plane for the glass.

After working on the fidelity I have to say that they are absolutely great, maybe art of engineering !



The thickness of a filmsheet will mostly have 175 Micron, nearly 0,2 mm.
The groundglass has more than 1mm, in my case 1,5mm.
So laying both on the floor, the difference between the rough side of the glass and the emulsion side of the film has more than 1 mm.
Laying the glass onto the (cutted off) middle plate of the fidelity isn't a correct solution.
After looking some hours onto the fidelity, my solution has been to cut off the two "film clambs" A, and the middle plate too.
In this way I was able to press the groundglass from downside against the two "clambs" B.
Normally, by loading a film, he will slide easily into the fidelity because of some space between film and "clamb".
That's the reason for the possibility to bring in a Stouffer greyscale, too.
For an excactly plane of the groundglass then it seems to be necessary to fill the space with stripes of film, which will have approximativement the thickness of the space.

For holding the groundglass in place, I took a frame, cutted of the second, nonused slide and some spacers.
And yes, Drew, the slide as a groundglass protector is absolutely perfect :-)

Some pics will follow,
Ritchie

[Drew Bedo]

Plaubel: I believe that I understand your description to say that both the septum deviding the two sides of the film holder and one set of film clips ae removed by cutting, HOW was the cutting done? I am assuming that the folding flaps that allow for film to be inserted were removed when doing the cutting and later replced. Was the glass plate glued in place with epoxy?

[plaubel]

For cutting, I have used a Dremel, but this wasn't the best tool.
It felt that the work took two ours, it needed a lot of sense and it made a lot of dust.
Imagine, that you have to be very careful not cutting away the filmclips B; there is only the space of two film sheets between middle septum and needed filmclip..
The middle septum plate is of aluminium, this doesn't work good by using a Dremel, Alu smears during cutting, this feels like a brake.

Removing the flaps was not necessary, "flapping" them was good enough.
But I had to work on them with the Dremel, too, they are very special inside and closed, they disturb the glass.

This all make me believe, as said before, that this ugly job may better done by building a complete new frame for the glass by using Aluminium, or wood...

Glueing the glass may not be the best idea, so I clambed the glass with some parts of the original darkslide ( I cutted a 4x5" whole in the darkslide and then used the rest like a frame) and, at thistime, with some small pieces of wood (spacers).
Have to find a better solution, but it works.
Let me soon make some pictures, maybe they will show more details.
Oh, and I forgot to tell, that for a 4x5" groundglass the fidelity must be a 9x12 cm version because of the bigger filmclips B.

[Tin Can]

@Plaubel

Did you use an abrasive cut off wheel with Dremel?

Pictures will be appreciated.

Converting DDS to universal GG is a great project. The preservation of DS as GG protector I see as primary reason.

Thanks for your efforts.

[Drew Bedo]

Does anyone know if the film holder can be partially disassembled to remove the septum, leaving both sets of film clip/channels intact. The glass plate would be inserted between the channels and epoxied in place providing structure.

Anyone know if this is possible?