Repairing/replacing 100 y/o darkslides

[Hollis]

I have a slew (technical term) of wooden plate holders that I use to mess around with some different processes and they both fall into either 8x10 or 4x5 (except for the two damn whole plate ones, which are in mint condition, that no one seems to want to buy. Sorry, rambling). Anyways, some have decent dark-slides, some are pretty bad and some are non-existent. I am looking for some advice as to how to replace them fairly cheaply. They don't have to be original or even match, just work. I was thinking of using thin sheet metal (19 gauge for the 8x10) but the 4x5 slides are even thinner.

Anyone have suggestions???

[Gene McCluney]

You "could" use sheet metal for all sizes of film-holders, but you might want to use aluminum, since it is lighter and easier to work. It would be just as light tight. If your old composite dark slides are unbroken with no holes, yet they are very tight and binding in the film holders, all you have to do is wax them with plain old Johnsons Paste wax (in the cleaning section of your Grocery Store). I have had old composition/paper, and hard rubber/bakelite darkslides that I couldn't pull out except with pliers, become smooth and friendly with a good wax job, both sides, and don't forget to buff. Remember, perhaps your parents putting wax on kitchen drawers that were hard to slide in and out? Same principle..the wax is a dry lubricant that won't get onto anything once buffed.

Just take a bit of the wax from the can onto a soft cloth and rub it into both sides of the darkslide and the edges, rub it in good, then take another soft cloth, such as a terry hand towel, and buff and polish. You may not visually see much difference in appearance, but boy do they work better, why they almost slide in by themselves.

[Hollis]

I wish it were as easy as just waxing them. The composite ones are turing into dust and the bakelite/synthetic ones are cracking and becoming real brittle. Its damn cold here right now (relatively speaking - 20 deg.) and I could see myself outside and snapping all the plastic ones once they got brittle. Aluminum is a good idea. Do you think I should black out the two surfaces? I don't really see any need to...

[Gene McCluney]

Do you think I should black out the two surfaces? I don't really see any need to...

If it were me making them, I would certainly black the edges.

You won't snap any older dark slides if they slide in and out like greased butter.

[CP Goerz]

There are a few on eb@y right now in the 8x10 section ;-)


CP Goerz

[Hollis]

Thanks all. Im going to scrap the old slides, its not worth greasing them - they are too beat up.

Hollis

[Hollis]

also, why does everyone write 'ebay' as eb@y or fleabay or 'that auction site'?

I mean really, is it that big of a deal? We all use it and it is the best camera store in the world, hands down.

[cowanw]

You can get the aluminium anodized black. I just had some mounting adapters done and they look great.
Regards
Bill

[David A. Goldfarb]

If it's not too many, I usually just buy a new darkslide and cut it to size as necessary. You can order replacement darkslides from B&H usually. It seems that most new ones are slightly larger than old ones of the same format, and if you have a non-standard format (smaller than 8x10" of course), you can buy the next size up. If you do this, don't insert the new darkslide before checking the size against the old one, or you can damage the holder, even if it seems to fit.

eBay--some forums don't allow posts with the word "eBay" in it, because they may be spam, but this isn't the case on this forum, so I suspect it's just force of habit for those who don't use the word.