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Thread: Here we go, Century 8x10 Restoration

  1. #31
    ic-racer's Avatar
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    Re: Here we go, Century 8x10 Restoration

    Here is the original bellows, removed from the rest of the camera. The back of the bellows is circumfrentially nailed to the rear of the camera with tiny tacks. The front is glued to a board that then screws to the front standard.

    Still deciding on where to send it...

  2. #32
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    Front and rear ready to go

    I finished up the front and rear sections. I wanted to get things back to gether because I don't like dissasembled things lying around. Things tend to get lost.

  3. #33
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    Wood finish

    When I started this project I told myself I was going to use polyurethane for the finish, rather than toil away with nitrocellulose lacquer. Well, I wound up using the lacquer anyway. Mostly because I am refinishing a guitar now and I would have extra clear lacquer in the paint gut that I used up on these camera pieces.

    I wound up NOT stripping the finish. This shows the 'battle scars' of almost 100 years of existence. It has a nice 'distressed' look. The finish is very shiny and I don't know how well that can be conveyed in these pictures.

    The sequence was:

    Sand
    Cover with clear lacquer 3-5 coats (goes on thin)
    Sand 400 grit
    Sand 1500 grit
    3M rubbing compound
    3M "Hand Glaze" (gives it that wet look)

  4. #34
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    Symmar-S 210

    I was expecting the lens to be a 'project' lens, based on the price. I was prepared to pound out the dents, as they were clearly shown in the ad for the lens.

    It turns out this glass is fantastic, and I rarely use filters, so cosmetics would be the only reason to go after this dent. The front element sticks out so much that it would probably need to come out to safely work on this.

    The real problem was the aperture mechanism. It would bind right about at f45.

    I have never taken down a Copal #1, so this was somewhat of a learning experience for me.

    Nice design of the shutter, as the gears and such don't all fall out when the timing mechanism is inverted (it needs to be inverted to get the shutter blades back together)

    After getting the timing plate off, I set it like an open book and transferred and fipped the shutter blades onto the back of the timing plate.

    This exposed the aperture mechanism. One of the blades had jumped its track. I just took it all down and re-assembled the blades (If you have never done this it is very tedious) I used little tweezers so I did not get any finger oil on the blades.

    Got it all back together (BTW the speeds all seemed fine), and now the aperture ring moves silky smooth.

    This may have been caused when the lens got its ding on the filter ring, however, I have another theory. The 'index' screw on the back of the lens is right over the aperture blade that had jumped its track. The hole for this index screw opens right on to the aperture blade (you can see it move through the screw hole). This is a clean lens, but the index screw is all chewed up, like it came from some 'parts' bin.

    My theory is that at some point the lens was mounted in a lensboard without an index slot and so the original index screw was lost or discarded. At some later point the lens was re-mounted and a screw that was too long was used as an index screw. This damaged the aperture mechanism. Later someone took that screw out and tried to fix the lens but bailed out when they found out you have to dissasemble the shutter blades to get to the aperture mechanism. (coming up with these stories is just as much fun as fixing the stuff )

  5. #35
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    Lens Cap Repair

    This really worked. The rear lens cap was all splayed out, like it had been crammed on a larger lens for some time.

    I put a hose clamp around the perimeter and heated it up with a hair dryer until the plastic was limp, then I put it under cold water and it held the new shape. Now the cap is nice and tight.

  6. #36
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    Cheap and Easy Aperture Scale Replacement

    I suspect that the original shutter for this lens was swapped out for re-sale. The aperture scale on this lens was some home-made piece for some other lens. It's scale went from f8 to f90 (rather than f5.6 to f64 which would be appropriate for this lens). The scale was also placed incorrectly for the 210mm, so that it was about 3/4 of a stop off.

    After some experimenting I discovered that my label maker would make a perfect scale.

    In case anyone wants to try this, the settings on the Brother P-Touch were as follows:
    Font: Brussels
    Size: 9
    Text: "64..45..32..22..16..11..8..5.6" and "5.6..8..11..16..22..32..45..64"

    I suspect this would give the correct f-stop spacing for ANY Copal #1 shutter.

    Next time I'm at the office supply store I'm going to see if they have any white letters on clear backing.

    That last composite image shows the aperture scale that came on the shutter when it arrived.

  7. #37
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    Lens that cost less than TEN times the price of the camera

    Earlier I had stated that for many years I had been looking for a lens that cost less than ten times the price of the camera. The camera was purchased for $5USD in 1976. So using one of those 'inflation calculators' on the web I determined that this camera would cost $18 USD if purchased today.

    This Symmar-S 210mm cost $125, so that puts it in at less than ten time the camera price. Yey!

    On another topic, I measured the size of the opening for the lens board and it requires 3/32inch wood. I know I can get plywood in this size from the same supplier that makes the small wood I'm using for the focusing rails.

  8. #38
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    Re: Here we go, Century 8x10 Restoration

    Beautiful work!

  9. #39
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    Ooh...

    Cherry wood strips came in the mail today...From the looks of the package it did not look like they survived. And on opening the package I was right, almost all the pieces were broken. The most important one, the 1/4 inch by 1/4 inch cherry, was broken into 3 pieces.

  10. #40
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    Testing the 210 Symmar-S MC

    While the glue was drying on the wood strips that I had to repair I mounted the Symmar on the Horseman to check it out.

    From what I could tell with an 8x loupe on the ground glass I don't detect any problem with the lens. It was very sharp, and my impression was that it will certainly be fine for 8x10 contact prints.

    I shot some 4x5 TMX but have not processed them yet.

    To see how this 210mm is going to behave as an 8x10 lens I am going to try the experiment in one-half size:

    I have a 6x9 Horseman 105 lens that 'just barely' covers 4x5. Putting this lens on the 4x5 Horseman should give me a very good simulation of using the 210 Symmar-S on the 8x10 camera.

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