Removing rusted screws (from an Ansco 8x10)

[pjd]

So far I've removed two screws. There are another 6 similar screws to remove from the front frame, and 12 from the rear - plus there are tacks in the rear frame. The screws were rusted in. I was busy with another camera, but even now that I have more time for this Ansco it will be a slow process.

I'm not sure if easy out screw extractors would work, it might be worth a try. The glue joints in the front standard all gave out (including the bellows frame) so I at least have unimpeded access to the screw heads - which I will not have for the rear frame.

[Jody_S]

When I had a similar problem with bellows frames, I simply pried the frames off the wood standards (gently!), leaving the rusted screws in place. If the head of the screw is that rusted, the body tends to also have rust, making this removal a lot easier than expected. I could then tap them out of the bellows frames with a tack hammer, clean up the holes in both the bellows frames and the standards, then I used slivers of mahogany and wood glue in the now-stripped holes in the standards before re-assembling with new screws. Because none of this is visible on the finished camera, I thought I didn't need to get too fancy with removing the screws, and I figured it was more important to keep the bellows frames intact than to try to save the screw holes in the front and rear standards. Worst case, I could always drill new holes beside the old ones.