condit registration equipment

[Russell Welch]

Does anyone know of a source for condit registration pins??

[Wayne]

Good luck. They're out of business and I havent seen them turning up anywhere.

But, you can buy registration pins elsewhere. Do they have to be Condit pins?

[N Dhananjay]

Condit is out of business. You can buy register pins from Milton Bregman Mfg in NJ (Tel: 973 - 822 3554. Very helpful folks. The smallest registration pins are about 1/4" dia. I've been looking for a source of 1/16" pins and haven't seen them anywhere - I've improvised around some machine screws for now but would be grateful for any sources of smaller pins. Cheers, DJ.

[Wayne]

yeah, the Bregman pins and service are great, but they were pretty darned pricey too. They only sell pins in groups of 8, I believe.

American Circuit Technology http://members.aol.com/dmccellan/act3.htm

also has pins, but I dont recall their sizes. Other places to look are graphic arts suppliers and electronic manufacturing suppliers.

[Keith Pitman]

I've seen Condit equipment turn up on eBay from time to time.

[Said Nuseibeh]

In the wake of our loss of Condit Mfg, someone suggested we can turn to an outfit called World Images in Hillsborough, Oregon. They come highly recommended but I have yet to contact them. I don't even have their contact info yet. So Russell, if you pursue this, please give an update.

[N Dhananjay]

A new source of registration equipment - Alistair Inglis, 4987 Dunbar St., Vancouver, BC, V6NIV4, CANADA. Tel: 604 - 266 0260. Cheers, DJ.

[dap]

Well It looks like I am a bit late to the party (better late than never). I found a cheap source of 1/16" registration pins...sort of. I was working on a camera repair project that required me to re-rivet some parts. I ended up having to buy a bag of solid 1/16" solid countersunk rivets (250 rivets in a bag for under $10). After a year passed the old lightbulb went on - they fit the holes made by a condit punch perfectly.

The countersunk head has enough surface area to accept glue so it should be possible to glue them to the surface of a glass plate (for making a pin registered contact printing frame). The countersunk head is also pretty thin/low profile so you should not have to drill out the glass like they did on the original condit glass plates.

The company that makes the rivets is Hanson Rivet Supply Co. (I ordered them through McMaster-Carr). The rivets I have are made of aluminum rather than the stainless models on Condit equipment, but as long as they do not come into contact with darkroom chemicals I don't see it as being a problem. At any rate they are cheap enough to experiment with.

[Drew Wiley]

American Circuit Technology claims they can make them if you provide them with a
sample or precise drawing; otherwise, they are not familiar with them. Good luck getting anything out of the Hillsborough OR connection: he's got them but still owes me stuff from four years ago (he purchased Condit but basically doesn't seem to follow through with anyone spending less than fifty grand for a new lab setup). I picked up some stainless non-stepped pins the right diameter from McMaster and some
special drill bits, so am going to start making my own pin glasses for any new jigs I
might need. Condit pins themselves varies a few thousands in diameter, depending
when they were made. This didn't seem to make much difference. But the trick is
to have the pin itself offset from the center of the base, so the pin can be turned
ever so slightly for exact registration before the epoxy sets. If anyone wants to try a
combined order to ACT let me know.

[dap]

But the trick is
to have the pin itself offset from the center of the base, so the pin can be turned
ever so slightly for exact registration before the epoxy sets. If anyone wants to try a
combined order to ACT let me know.

I noticed that the "set in glass" condit pins have a somewhat eccentric base. It never really occured to me that they were for fine tuning register distance between punch holes but it make sense.

I figured that the rivet heads are thin enough that you could get away without drilling the glass (there might be a very tiny amount of "dimpling" of the film immediately around the rivet heads, but I don't think this will be a big issue if you use a nice contact frame that applies adequate pressure to the film). I was planning on ensuring proper spacing by inserting both rivets in a pre-punched piece of film and then laying the whole get-up on glass and then applying glue to the rivet heads. You would have to be really careful and use very controlled amounts of glue so the whole shebang (rivets and film) don't get glued to the glass. I haven't tried it yet, but it seems like it might be a workable alternative to custom made pins.

[Drew Wiley]

What you can do with rivet bases if you're steady-handed is to very slightly grind down the glass using a carbide or diamond cylinder (depending on the type of glass),
using a die grinder, precision drill press, or even Dremel tool. If I was starting from scratch I'd buy one of those Jet miniature "hobby" milling machines (about $800 + cutters). But since my original Condit equipment is in very good shape, I don't need to actually manufacture much more gear. The difficult thing to find is a thick kind of
anti-newton glass which can be drilled. According to Warren Condit himself, when he
was still alive, it is no longer made. Focal Point glass can't be drilled, but I have
sucessfully bonded pins to strips and slightly recessed the tabs in the manner noted
above to make precision neg carriers. If you don't need anti-newton, you can use
conventional thick float glass, provided it's not tempered. I have some diamond bits
in transit to see how they'll work with tempered. Any change in flatness plane will
affect registration. I wouldn't want anything but the 1/16" micro-pin projecting above
the surface.

[jeroldharter]

What are you trying to do with them?

I suggest that you contact Lynn Radeka. He sells registration pins, punches, and registration negative carriers. His pins are good for DIY projects on a budget.

Another alternative is Alistair Inglis.

[Drew Wiley]

The Condit system is preferable for sheer versatility, for working with film larger than
4X5, or for a high degree of accuracy. Durst also made their own system, but it's hard
to get all the parts in decent condition; they used an offset pin which could be adjusted using a screwdriver, but you need their own punch. What one does to cement
a micropin is to put them in the film, coat the film itself with a little vaseline or butter
to prevent the epoxy from sticking (but don't get any on the pin bases), insert and
adjust the pin bases with a good overnite 2-ton glass epoxy (not the quickie stuff).
You also need a flat weight or platen so the film is pressed completely even, just like
it will be when the masking frame is closed.