alternative retaining rings?

[tim atherton]

Has anyone got any good ideas for alternative sources of retaining rings for non standard lenses - i.e. things from the hardware store/mechanics shop or such?

I have an old Voigtlander brassie that I swapped with the Gillimeister. It fits reasonably neatly through the copal 3 hole in a lensboard, but obviously I need something (cheap) to hold it tight? (there also isn't a huge amount of thread...)

so, any ideas?

thanks

[Jack Flesher]

Hot-Melt glue... Not a good permanent solution, but does the trick if you are in a studio and/or just want to test a new lens :)

[Michael Graves]

Has anyone got any good ideas for alternative sources of retaining rings for non standard lenses - i.e. things from the hardware store/mechanics shop or such?

I have an old Voigtlander brassie that I swapped with the Gillimeister. It fits reasonably neatly through the copal 3 hole in a lensboard, but obviously I need something (cheap) to hold it tight? (there also isn't a huge amount of thread...)

so, any ideas?

thanks

Do you know the thread pitch and diameter? I have a couple of really old retaining rings that don't fit anything I own. Maybe one of them will work.

[Ralph Barker]

I've also read reports of people using Masonite or similarly quasi-soft materials as temporary or even quasi-permanent retaining rings. The trick, I suppose, is "drilling" the ring material to a size that the lens/shutter threads will cut their own corresponding threads in the ring material.

If doing that, I might add three or four dots of hot glue on the back side of the lens/retainer joint as an added precaution.

[Dave Brown]

I've got a lens that's been performing just fine for five years being held on by electrical tape and a hose clamp.

[Gene McCluney]

In a wood lens board, you can just drill the hole tight, and the threads from the back of the lens can "bite" into the wood a little, you just screw it into the lensboard. Or, if the hole is loose, you can line it with felt from the crafts store that has an adhesive backing to stick to the wood. This will give something for the teeth of the lensmount to "bite" into to hold the lens.

[Struan Gray]

Older brassies often have quite a pronounced flange in front of the screw thread. You can hold them against the board with three or more screws/bolts fitted with washers that press on the flange. Use rubber washers or o-rings if you're worried about marring the brass.

[Bob Salomon]

Just bring it to a machine shop along with the borad and have them thread the board for you.

[Don Hutton]

Just bring it to a machine shop along with the borad and have them thread the board for you.
Have you actually tried to find a machine shop in the US in past five years? I think Azo grade 3 is easier to find....

[tim atherton]

Have you actually tried to find a machine shop in the US in past five years? I think Azo grade 3 is easier to find....

hmmm - that's what I swapped the lens for (or maybe it was grade 2?)

and you're right about the machine shops - I hunted all over this city of 1 million a while back to get someone to drill a metal board no luck (plenty of "machine shops" listed - as long as you wanted parts for you oil or gas pipeline fabricated...). We actually still have an old fashioned used-camera store - floor to ceiling bits and pieces, and he still repairs stuff - but he had no idea who could do it anymore either

It's a metal board, with an existing copal 3 hole - which is already just a tad bigger than the lens thread already...

thanks all some good ideas

the hose clamp sound like a good idea for now... (and I just saw a store/warehouse in the industrial area this afternoon called "Edmonton Nut and Bolt" - so maybe I'll take a look there!)

[Erich Hoeber]

Another vote here for the hot glue gun. Quick, cheap, strong and easily reversible.

[Bob Salomon]

Have you actually tried to find a machine shop in the US in past five years? I think Azo grade 3 is easier to find....

Yes. Try Keeble & Shuchat in Palo Alto. They can do it.

[Don Hutton]

My point was Bob, in case you missed it, they are not exactly around every corner like they used to be. Palo Alto is a long way from here.... As an aside, I thought your advice was to "try a machine shop" anyway - not a photographic retailer....

[tim atherton]

hopefully bob is throwing in the air fare? :-)

[Paul Metcalf]

If you have any woodworking skills and tools (table saw, drill press, forstner bits) you can make something like in the photos (see link). Use a 1/2-inch thick piece of wood cut square bigger than the diameter of the lens. Secure in a drill press and drill all the way through a hole that's a smidge bigger than the barrel, then bore a boss using the forstner bit that's a bit bigger than the shoulder of the barrel at the base (where it would normally screw into a retaining ring) and about 1/4-inch into the wood. (An alternative to using a drill press is to bore the boss first, then drill the through-hole using the center punch from the forstner boring bit as a guide. The goal is to have the hole and the boss concentric). Using a lensboard with a hole that's just big enough for the threads to go through, slide this square piece down the barrel and secure with screws into the lensboard. If needed, you can use some felt in the boss-area to apply pressure to secure movement of the lens. I finish my in glossy black paint and use brass screws, looks pretty nifty with brass lenses (especially polished lenses).
http://www.pixagogo.com/4997144154

[Jon Wilson]

At hardware type stores, you can purchase plastic straps which will tighten by threading the strap through a self tightening hole and pulling the end of the strap(tightens tight like a hose clamp), i.e., picture cheap plastic restraint straps which law enforecment use at times in lieu of handcuffs. If someone knows what these plastic binding straps are called, let me me know.

I have used these type of plastic retention straps with old brass lens as a "retaining flange."

[Jon Wilson]

I found a bag of these "plastic straps" and they are called Cable Ties.

[Colin Myers]

As most metal lensboards/lenspanels, tend to be around a sixteenth of an inch in thickness and we may be looking at a fairly large diameter thread on the the old brass lens. I do not think that trying to thread the board itself is a very good idea, as you you may well end up with less than one full thread on the board.
Colin Myers