Mounting or re-housing lens in an oscilloscope shutter?

[kevnielsen]

Hi All,
I've got an Eastman Ektar 8 1/2" in an Ilex #3 universal. It doesn't have any threads on the outside of the back of the shutter. After doing research online to try to figure out how to mount it, all i've come up with is that it may possibly be an oscilloscope shutter, which are apparently quite difficult to mount to a lens board. I bought it to use for wet plate photography, so the shutter is more of a burden than anything. Is it possible to swap lens elements into either a barrel (preferred) or another shutter that has threads?
Thanks!

[Jim Andrada]

Could you just glue it in place with hot melt glue?

[Dan Fromm]

Per SKGrimes Ilex shutters sold to EKCo had tubes with different internal threading than Ilex shutters sold to other customers. Swaps of Kodak lenses into non-Kodak Ilexes don't work well.

For example, I have an ex-Speed-I-O-Scope Ilex 3 that someone forced a #33 Kodak Anastigmat's cells into. I can't for the life of me get the front cell out. Its thread (visible, it isn't fully seated) are finer than the front threads in another ex-Speed-I-O-Scope Ilex 3. Arrrgh!

Barrels aren't readily available.

Your best bet is to give up on the lens and get one in the right shutter.

[kevnielsen]

Ok, thank you both!

Do you think i could find a different EKCo Ilex shutter that would have the rear threads? I would have to get another Universal No. 3, right?

I might do the hot glue method, just to get a few photos and see if i want to replace it with an identical lens in the right shutter. Sorry to hear about your stuck anastigmat. That sounds like it'd be a real challenge to get back out again without destroying the shutter, cell, or both.

[Tin Can]

If these are for shooting oscilloscopes from inches away, could long focus be a problem?

[Dan Fromm]

Kev, if you wait long enough you might be able to find an EKCo Ilex #3 with no or a bad lens. I'm not patient enough to do that.

Randy, I have a couple of these shutters. Lack of external rear threading and (sometimes) limited maximum aperture aside, they're perfectly normal Ilex Universal #3 shutters.

Oscilloscope cameras are indeed fixed focus with the plane of best focus set by the body's built-in extension, not by using a bizarre shutter.