Poly finish coat on the camera base, and on the front, rear, and keeper rails (three coats). This mahogany wood is so pretty I did not want to add any stain to it. It is a little lighter in color than vintage cameras I've used prior to this, but it's too pretty to risk messing it up with a darker stain. So, clear coat seemed the way to go.
I routed out for the rail locks and for the front standard lock and drilled and epoxied in the tripod socket. I did this routing freehand, just placed the locks where I wanted them, traced around each one with a pencil, then tipped the router bit into the middle and tried to stay within my lines--a little nerve-wracking, but it seemed to work okay. This is my first real project using the hand held router so I'm relying on YouTube videos to figure out how to use it. Fortunately, the router has an LED light underneath and a clear plastic window to see through. After the first one, I thought to use blue painter's tape to cover all around the area I wanted to route; this helped a lot, as the pencil lines did not show very clearly.
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