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View Full Version : Kodak 2D Refurb (long overdue)



C. D. Keth
22-Mar-2009, 00:08
Hey, everyone. Remember way back in the fall when I bought a kodak 2D and started working on restoring it? Yeah, I hardly remember it myself. I got as far as polishing the hardware and then a bunch of things made me stop until a few days ago.

Since then I have altered a front standard from another 2D to work with my front rise hardware. The front standard of my camera had been chopped up so it had front tilt. I want something more or less original looking so I did a little router work. I think it'll work pretty well.

I cleaned up all of the wood pieces and followed some advice I got from a furniture restorer to get some healthy moisture back into the wood. That basically consisted of murphy's oil soap and quite a few very light applications of lemon oil. I let that sit for about a week, rubbing it every day with a clean cloth to catch the oil that the wood rejected. The idea is that, with some time, the wood comes to a sort of equilibrium with the environment.

With the wood all happy, I wanted to give it a more protective finish than the 80-year-old whatever they put on them back in the day. After some research, I came up with this water based rub-on polyurethane. It's pretty sweet stuff and goes on very thin. The nice part is that it cleans up with soap and water and has virtually no odor. I did it in my living room. The wood got 3 coats of the poly on top of the old finish. I originally was going to completely refinish the camera but I decided to keep the old finish, nicks, scratches and all. I like that it looks like an old camera and didn't want to change that. Call it a functional refurbish job, I guess.

Tonight I reassembled everything except the front standard. I left the bellows off because they're kind of a pain to handle and I want to screw them on once and only once. I took some quick photos of how it looks now. I'll take nicer ones and update this thread when it's 100% complete in several days.

First, a few photos of what I started with:
http://www.christopherketh.com/images/2DOriginal1.JPG
http://www.christopherketh.com/images/2DOriginal4.JPG
http://www.christopherketh.com/images/2DOriginal5.JPG
http://www.christopherketh.com/images/2DOriginal10.JPG

C. D. Keth
22-Mar-2009, 00:19
And this is what's coming together now. Better photos (not taken in my dark apartment) will be taken when it's all finished.
http://www.christopherketh.com/images/2DReassembling1.JPG
http://www.christopherketh.com/images/2DReassembling2.JPG
http://www.christopherketh.com/images/2DReassembling3.JPG
http://www.christopherketh.com/images/2DReassembling4.JPG

jb7
22-Mar-2009, 02:37
Looks like a good job Christopher-
look forward to seeing the next batch of pictures-


joseph

Jim Fitzgerald
22-Mar-2009, 06:47
Christopher, as a camera builder and restorer I agree that it is nice to keep the integrity of your nice old 2-D. The nicks and marks add character to the camera in my opinion and it would be a shame to remove them. Very nice job and I can relate to working in an apartment!


Jim

Roger Thoms
22-Mar-2009, 08:54
Chistopher the metal look great, what did you use to clean/polish it with? I ask because I recently bought a 2D off craigslist and the metal is very tarnished.

Roger

C. D. Keth
22-Mar-2009, 13:11
rtbadman, the wood got a strongish murphy's oil soap mixture then I left it a couple of days and did it again with a more dilute mixture. I just used a rag and wrung it almost dry.

I tried brass polish on the hardware but it wasn't aggressive enough so I went straight to 0000 steel wool. That still took quite a bit of elbow grease. I steel wooled until the tarnish was gone but not so much that I took the texture off. The hardware on this camera has a slight texture, I assume from pressing or casting. Then I washed all of the hardware with dish soap and hot water and let it dry. The day after that, it got 2 coats of lacquer and a very light 0000 steel wooling.

Jim, thanks for the compliment. Part of me still wanted to restore it as new but, realistically, this isn't the camera for that anyway. Some of the dings and scrapes are so deep and some of the hardware is altered (like the right metal side of the rear standard) so I thought this is an equally good approach for this camera.

Roger Thoms
22-Mar-2009, 13:27
Thanks for the info, I didn't want to do anything that would ruin the texture on the metal. As far as the wood I'm not sure what I want to do. The person who owned the camera before me sanded the old finish off and then applied some type of oil finish. It doesn't look to bad, but some of the original stain remains so that the color is uneven. I just got film so I think I'm going to photograph with the camera before starting any restoration.

Roger

Jim Michael
22-Mar-2009, 13:53
That's looking real nice Chris. I restored a 2D a few years ago and used Brasso and a buffing wheel on a Dremel tool to polish the brass. Jewelers rouge from the hardware store would also work. For the wood, I first stripped the old finish and then applied a number of coats of tung oil, buffing with 0000 steel wool between applications.

C. D. Keth
22-Mar-2009, 16:16
I just remembered. I'm missing a couple of pieces: the brass plaque from the front standard under the lens and the knob from the left side of the front rise mechanism.

If anyone has one of either of those hanging about, I'd love to make a deal with you and make my camera complete.

John T
22-Mar-2009, 16:55
I may have them. I'll have to check. I'm in Woodland Hills, so we're close.

John

C. D. Keth
23-Mar-2009, 01:21
I may have them. I'll have to check. I'm in Woodland Hills, so we're close.

John

That would be wonderful! I finished everything else up tonight so those are the only bits left.

Jim Fitzgerald
23-Mar-2009, 07:48
I just remembered. I'm missing a couple of pieces: the brass plaque from the front standard under the lens and the knob from the left side of the front rise mechanism.

If anyone has one of either of those hanging about, I'd love to make a deal with you and make my camera complete.

Christopher, I will check also. I used parts from an old 2-D when I built my walnut 8x20 and I may have those left over. I'm in Ventura and go by your area often.

Jim

PViapiano
23-Mar-2009, 08:31
Christopher...did you dis-assemble the camera before all the work?

ic-racer
23-Mar-2009, 08:46
Looks good. I also did not strip the finish when I did my Century. http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showpost.php?p=279469&postcount=33

If I had that problem with the notch cut into the standard I would consider making a piece of brass to fit in the divot and soldering it in place. Then, I bet brass colored spray paint on that standard would cover the repair job and blend in with your treatment of the other brass parts.

Thanks for posting that closeup of the 'swinging needle' as I need to make one of those.

C. D. Keth
23-Mar-2009, 14:36
Christopher...did you dis-assemble the camera before all the work?

Yes I did. It came apart into every little bit and piece. Wood pieces that still had good solid glue joints stayed that way. Joints that were loose got reglued.

I went out with my digital P&S and took some nicer photos now that it's all done (pending those little parts I mentioned):
http://www.christopherketh.com/images/2DComplete1.JPG
http://www.christopherketh.com/images/2DComplete2.JPG
http://www.christopherketh.com/images/2DComplete3.JPG
http://www.christopherketh.com/images/2DComplete4.JPG

C. D. Keth
23-Mar-2009, 14:37
http://www.christopherketh.com/images/2DComplete5.JPG
http://www.christopherketh.com/images/2DComplete6.JPG
http://www.christopherketh.com/images/2DComplete7.JPG
http://www.christopherketh.com/images/2DComplete8.JPG

C. D. Keth
23-Mar-2009, 14:37
http://www.christopherketh.com/images/2DComplete9.JPG
http://www.christopherketh.com/images/2DComplete10.JPG
http://www.christopherketh.com/images/2DComplete11.JPG

John T
23-Mar-2009, 16:13
Christopher,

PM sent.

John