DIY Wood 10x12 Plate Holder Repairs

[guyatou]

I picked up a cool old Midland 10x12 camera from a local photographer this week (who happens to be a forum member as well). The camera came with 5 double-sided plate holders (presumably dry plate, but maybe someone can chime in on that).

The camera is in pretty great shape for being about 100 years old, but the holders are all in need of a little TLC. The wood on the dark slides has shrunk and separated in places, and I'm going to make some repairs.

...but before I get started, I wanted some opinions!

Is there any reason I can't fill the cracks with standard wood putty, sand stain and varnish? That is my plan thus far. Does anybody have any experience using wood putty on plate/film holders?

Also, the holders have a neat function that allows the dark slides to bend backward and lay flat while the plate is being exposed. The dark slides stay attached to the holder during exposure. The jointed sections are held together with some kind of fabric tape, some of which has come apart. Is bookbinding tape the best option for that? It would need to be about 2" across to work. The joint would have a similar movement to the hinge on a regular 4x5 film holder.

I'd like to keep as much of the historic character of these as I can, so I'm not going to do a major overhaul, just make 'em light tight and functional.

Any advice would be much appreciated, as I haven't been able to find other folks on the forum that have tackled a project like this yet.

[guyatou]

Here are some crude photos of one of the holders, pretty representative of the whole batch.

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[R.K]

I suggest you to use Quickwood, this is an epoxy based wood putty, very strong, can be easily applied, cleaned and painted. Yes of course you can use a bookbinding tape. I used it on the regular plastic holders and it is a very strong holding tape.

[Steven Tribe]

There are previous threads!

The book plates you have are the most common design (flexible section).

The usual repair of the age/drying cracks in the thin mahogany (unavoidable!) used to be thin black paper strips across the cracks.

Using a cosmetic solution like wood filler is not a good idea as the filler will either fall out or develop micro-cracks.
You can either use thin black tape internally - or, as I do, fill up the cracks internal with black "building flexible" mastic. You may need to check for light leaks an extra time as the mastic will skrink quite a lot with thicker cracks and a minor extra layer may be necessary.

Note the channel for the dark slide can fill up with dust etc. so do a clean out of this channel before it starts to stick and place stress on the weaker areas - the tape and the pull/push handle which often have concealed cracks (that is, only appear when you pull).

Wood is a wonderful material that will always change its dimension based on how much moisture it currently holds. Using a "fixing" material like epoxy will only encourage the development of cracks elsewhere!!

[R.K]

I still recommend you a Kwickwood, this is the right name of that putty, i did a mistake in the previous post. This putty a specially designed for that type of fixing wooden parts, and it never cracks. And if you paint it over with mahogany wood colored solution used in furniture repair it will be like original and almost non visible. That putty used by furniture restorators for a years and it never falling out, I did it my self a lot of times. However of course you have a choice to use a paper ore a black tape ore a building mastic witch are absolute not suitable for that kind of repair and as author of previous post noted created a cracks after drying. And visually it will be not pleasant too. The part you trying to repair already very old and wood probably dry as it only can be and if you will kip it mostly in the normal room condition the year around wood movements will never be so big that wooden cracks will happens. The well kept old furniture are a good example of my worlds. And mahogany used to be a popular boat building material, so it is a strong wood and it didn't develop cracks so easy.

[imagedowser]

Steven, +1

[guyatou]

The holders did have black paper or tape on parts of them, most of which was removed before I got it. I ordered some cloth bookbinding tape today that should work to repair the flexible sections. I can probably use it on the inside to block the cracks as well. Plus, I can use it to rebuild the hinges on my 4x5 holders while I'm at it. Thanks Steven and RK for the suggestions!

[Steven Tribe]

I am not talking about furniture sized wood dimensions, but the very thin mahogany used in plate holders.

These will very quickly adopt the humidity and temperature of the surrounding air.

Good quality mastic will accept 25% movement without cracking. The extra check I wrote about is after a few days when insufficient "filling-up" of holes becomes obvious. I have lots of examples of this mastic in window mountings which are still flexible after 40 years of direct sunlight!

[guyatou]

Steven, do you happen to have a container of the mastic you use? I'm sure we won't have the same brand here, but I'd like to make sure I get the right thing. Most mastics I've seen here are adhesives for Linoleum floors, etc. Is that the right stuff? Can you stain it/paint it after it sets?

[Steven Tribe]

The tube I currently use is

Sikaflex AT Connection (Black).

This (reading the label!) is without organic solvents.

It hardens to a rubbery material after about 24 hours and the excess can be removed quite easily the first few hours.
There are a lot of competing products - just find one with maximum elasticity.

[R.K]

KwikWood is a hand-mixable epoxy putty, formulated to repair and rebuild wood. After mixing, it cures to the same density as wood and becomes an integral part of the repair. For use on exterior or interior applications, it contains no solvents, will not rot, shrink, crack or pull away. KwikWood has a 15-25 minute work life. After 60 minutes, it can be machined, drilled, tapped, sanded, filed and painted. Stronger than wood, KwikWood dries to a light tan color.

http://www.jbweld.com/product/j-b-kwikwood-1oz/

[guyatou]

Thanks guys! I've used a similar epoxy wood filler around my house, it's definitely strong. It might just be overkill for this particular job. I've got tape inbound, when it gets here, that might actually do the trick without making any permanent repairs. We will see!