Extreme Flange Removal
In the 1990s I picked up ten oscilloscope cameras from a surplus eletronics warehouse for about $5 each. They each had a 75mm/f i.9 "Oscillo-Paragon" in a Wollensak shutter. I salvaged these lenses and discarded the rest of the camera housings as junk.
Now as someone here is sure to (quickly) point out, these lenses are not really suited to LF photography. They do not cover more than 6cm x 6cm at infinity. Many folks say they are not sharp, and the shutters on my examples have no external threads for a mounting ring. I have used them for macro work at long extension covering both 4x5 and 8x10. With this said, please let's not go back and forth over the recognized shortcomings and limitations of these lenses.
The lenses came out of the camera housings without trouble except for the heavy aluminum flanges that screwed onto both the front and rear lens barrels. I tried everything to get these flanges off; heavy torque acompanied by heat and solvents. Nothing worked.
If the lenses themselves were unusable, at least there were 10 working shutters. With only the $50 to lose there was one last option. I went to a local gunsmith and described the situation. He was reluctant to do anything, but I managed to convince him that we should try one and if it was destroyed I was OK with that.
So the lens cells were unscrewed from one shutter and chucked up in his lathe. He carefully milled off the flanges one by one and by golly it worked! Each came off without incident . . .not a scratch. What-do-you-know?
Sold off most of them at the old Houston Camera show one weekend for ~$40 each and kept two for me.
Still have them.
Bookmarks