Ugly mounting methods

[Joseph O'Neil]

I found that lens boards for my mighty green monster (C1 - 8x10) were not cheap. One store online was $69 US per board, plus shipping, etc, etc.

So, the local industrial plastic store had sheet acrylic, black, in stock. All thicknesses, but I bought the 3/8th thick, and had the lens board cut just under 6x6 inch. Yes, it's shocking, some of us up here in Canada still speak "imperial measurements." :p

To cut holes, I used a plain old hole saw, the kind you buy at Home depot or any other hardware store. It helps that my dad and myself have a drill press too.

I wasn't able to have the hole cut exactly to fit my two barrell lenses, but close enough - see back view, if you can. I still have to round off the edges to fit in the camera, and I'll rough up the rear of the lens board with fine sandpaper to cut down on light reflection. yes, should fo done that before I mounted the lenses. But I did when I mounted my 240 g-claron. :)

As you can see no shutter (someday, a packard), and to attach the lenses I have used some small spots or dabs of epoxy glue. Yes, a bugger to get off if and when I need to, but I plan not to need to in the near future. :) I plan to follow up with a couple of small bolts for added safety.

Will let you all know how it works out, but looking forward to trying it.

In case you are wondering the one lens is a 14" Brown Mfg. Co process lens, a lens I cannot find anything about. The only thing google turns up are my own posts about the lens. :( If anyone has any info, please let me know. the other is a 305mm apo-nikkor.

joe

[Len Middleton]

Joe,

Try mounting a drum sander in the drill press tothe C-1make the job a little easier.

Smaller ones are great when you do not have the right size hole saw or there is already a hole and you need to make it bigger.

Larger ones are good for sanding the corners of the lensboard to make them fit C-1's or Deardorff's.

Whatever works,

Len

[Joseph O'Neil]

Thanks Len, will try!

As a follow up to my own message - please guys, talk me out it before I go fully over to the dark side of the force....

:eek: :D

[Jeremy Moore]

Joe, I cut my holes out with a dremel tool and just this past weekend I mounted a 135mm f/3.5 Tessar in Zeiss Ikon Compur shutter to the board using a shoestring tied around the back of the lens covered with hot glue. You could never tell from the business end that it was such a hack job, but since I didn't have a flange/retaining ring it works. If I ever need to unmount the lens it's very easy to pick off hot glue.

[Frank Petronio]

A hose clamp will work in a pinch, save the epoxy.

[Vaughn]

Thanks Len, will try!

As a follow up to my own message - please guys, talk me out it before I go fully over to the dark side of the force....

:eek: :D

I got one of those -- still trying to figure a way to get it on a 5.5" lens board!

Vaughn

Undoubtably, my method will be ugly...:o

[Tony Lakin]

I have been using the same method for many years both for my old De vere enlarger and my De vere 5X4 and 8X10 cameras, and with some pretty heavy lenses ie 300mm Componon S and 18 inch process lens never had a problem.
Good luck.

[Mark Sawyer]

The spiral-toothed saw bits work well in a drill press for cutting odd-sized hole (and shapes) in most lens board materials. It takes a few tries to get a good feel for guiding the material through smoothly, but it works well. And the lens flange hides the sins of somewhat uneven cutting very effectively...

[Len Middleton]

Joe,

For my 600mm Apo-Ronar CL, I used an old Calumet C-1 board and had my friend turn the hole on a lath. I then sanded the corners to fit the Dorff.

By time the hole for the lens got "hogged out", there was not a lot of lensboard left and I wanted the metal there rather than wood. Just did not want to hear the sound of the lens hitting the ground.

For an inexpensive poor quality lens, I might have done it differently. For a really good lens, I am a little risk adverse.

My thoughts,

Len

[John Jarosz]

My boards are 6"x6". And my lens is not the CL version. But it can be done.

Good luck

John

[Turner Reich]

HI Joe, very good work, I do the same with hardwood, Baltic birch, and aluminum. I use a drum sander to open up and or clean up the hole for an exact fit. A drill press and a hole saw or a fly cutter for thinner wood is the way to go for the average person without a mill or lathe. BTW your boards are going to be much lighter than a Calumet C1 and you can modify and discard at will.

So why did I buy the one's from Eddie? He needed the money to further his adventures into wet plate photography.

[Toyon]

Are you sure that the stuff is completely opaque?

[Shen45]

A hose clamp will work in a pinch, save the epoxy.

What do you mean in a pinch Frank :)

I have at least 3 lens "permanently" mounted to my MDF lensboards that way. :)

[seawolf66]

I also use Birch the one/eight inch stock , but I get the hole just tight enough to be able to screw in the lens and that solves all my problems for mounting them: Lauren

[N Dhananjay]

If I remember correctly, the Brown process lens (like pretty much all process lenses) is a standard dialyte design - in other words, it is an Artar by another name. I had a 30" which worked very, very nicely. Cheers, DJ

[Joseph O'Neil]

Are you sure that the stuff is completely opaque?

Hi;
yes, used it before on another camera. Not all of it is,true. Another thing you can do, if in question is spray the back of the lens board with with that rubberized tool handle stuff or that black under car rubberized stone guard stuff. both work.


Still trying to figure out how to mount that 600 mm apo-ronar on a 6x6 lens board and still ahve some material left over on the edges. Maybe if I can double up the board.

Later today if I get some shots, I,ll have to show you guys my "ugly filter" setup. a few years ago when they were cheap and plentiful (IRE - $10 a pop), you could buy aerial camera filters in deep yellow and red, but no orange. :(. Very flat, very good optical quality, but not coated, at least, not that I could see. I've used one before, and as long as you are not shooting into the sun, they work pretty good.

[Len Middleton]

Joe,

Looking at the lensboard for my 600mm Apo-Ronar CL this morning and the diameter of the hole is 4-1/2" on a 6"x6" lensboard. That basically leaves 3/4" at the narrowest part.

Now it has been some time since I had any formal materials training or structural analysis, so my decision is more based upon what I am comfortable with, rather than scientific analysis. But a good part of my day job is risk analysis, so what is the probability of failure and what is the consequence. I already had the metal Calumet C-1 board so my decision was easy.

Good luck and I hope it all works out well for you,

Len

[Mark Sampson]

It's possible that your Brown lens is a private-label Goerz Artar. Goerz did that for Robertson, one of Brown's competitiors in the process-camera business.

[Tracy Storer]

Skip the epoxy, drill and tap mounting holes in the acrylic, or use longer longer screws and put nuts on the back. You've got the drill press, and if you don't have and don't want to buy a cheap tap-wrench, you could chuck the tap in a hand-drill, and run it at low speed. (for acrylic)

[Len Middleton]

Joe,

Sorry one more thing about the 600 lens. I had to undercut the flange to eliminate the interference with the lensboard locks. Could have done the same thing by reducing the flange diameter, but with it on the lath my friend cut the flange thickness on the back just enough to clear the lensboard locks / mounting hardware.

The amount of reduction required would depend upon the diameter of the flange versus the distance between the lensboard mounting hardware.

Hope that helps,

Len

[Michael Jones]

Skip the epoxy, drill and tap mounting holes in the acrylic, or use longer longer screws and put nuts on the back. You've got the drill press, and if you don't have and don't want to buy a cheap tap-wrench, you could chuck the tap in a hand-drill, and run it at low speed. (for acrylic)

Ditto for my mounts on Kodak Master boards (and some Technikas, too). A dab of flat black paint (aka loktite) finishes the job.

Mike

[Joseph O'Neil]

Following up here, after 90 minutes in the shop - I mounted my 600mm apo-ronar. Yeah! BIG lens. To bad I cannot embed a wav file of "Also sprach Zarathustra" when you click on the image below, but hey, if you are hard up, just go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENl4JK6LJ0Y
:D

I find it amazing how far I have to open up the camera to get the ronar to focus. I've included a shot with my 35mm Brown, both F9 process lenses, to show the difference.

What is amazing me is I haven't even shot a sheet of film (yet), and how much I seem to be enjoying it all.

[Dirk Rösler]

Or get a board made to size, around $10: http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showpost.php?p=397399&postcount=51

No affiliation

[BarryS]

Or get a board made to size, around $10: http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showpost.php?p=397399&postcount=51

No affiliation

Had a terrible experience with that guy refusing to deliver or even answer emails after I paid him. I know others that have had the same problems, so caveat emptor!

[Dirk Rösler]

Thanks, good to know. Might be worth going via ebay so at least you have feedback ability.