I am in need of a new flange to fit a brass 13" Wollensak Vitax. If you read my thread earlier this month about polishing brass lenses, well, this is the same lens. The flange that came with this lens was billed as the original, but it only threads easily about half way down before becoming very difficult, or jamming. I have carefully cleaned and then lubricated the threads with a tiny bit of Molykote G-N, but the problem has persisted. There are no visible problems with the threads on either the lens or the flange.
OK. So SK Grimes, right? That's fine. But are there any other shops out there that also do this work? I had SK Grimes fabricate a custom flange for my 16" Vitax (I seem to have bad luck with Vitax flanges), and the flange they made is perfect. The only downside was that it cost almost $200 and they took ten weeks to do the work. I have sent emails to eight local machine shops, but so far I've gotten six rejections, mostly due (apparently) to the one-off nature of the job.
I'd appreciate any thoughts on other companies I might check with before sending this off to SK Grimes. I would like to shoot with this lens before July if at all possible.
Cameron Cornell
Washington State
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