What to do for stuck front movements on old Seneca

[Geraldine Powell]

I have a new to me improved Seneca 8 x 10. I can't get its front movements to go up more than about one centimeter. I loosen the knob on the right and I turn the knob on the left and both sides rise about the one centimeter. I am afraid to force it. I have one suggestion to spray lemon pledge into the tracks.
Are there any other approaches to this that anyone could recommend?
Geraldine

[Jon Shiu]

Try helping it move by pushing with one hand while turning the knob with the other. Maybe working it will help loosen it up. Spraying wax in the slots may also help. If you could take it apart to clean, wax and inspect, that would be best, but be careful not to damage the bellows.

Jon

[E. von Hoegh]

If the camera has been stored in a damp location, the wood may have swelled.

[lenser]

I would think that was would only (eventually) attract more dust and grit and hold them there. A thorough cleaning with a solvent, followed with a dry silicone lubricant would seem to be a better solution. Also, Is it possible that the Seneca might also require the knob to be pulled out a bit as in the Calumet CC-400 series and others?

[E. von Hoegh]

I would think that was would only (eventually) attract more dust and grit and hold them there. A thorough cleaning with a solvent, followed with a dry silicone lubricant would seem to be a better solution. Also, Is it possible that the Seneca might also require the knob to be pulled out a bit as in the Calumet CC-400 series and others?

I wouldn't go at it with waxes, solvents, lubricants or anything else until I had established that the wood wasn't swelled/warped due to damp.
An excellent concoction is powdered graphite in beeswax. Rub this onto the sliding wood surfaces.

Give the camera some time in a relatively dry environment and see what happens.

[William Whitaker]

Before you start spraying the camera with stuff or trying to force it to do something it doesn't want to do, take a good look at it. Try to see if there is an obvious reason the rise stops. Perhaps there is a nail head sticking out proud that is blocking its movement. Is the front rise gear-driven or slide-lock? Has the camera ever worked correctly during your ownership? When was the last time it worked right? Is this a new problem that just started? I've often found that with old cameras as with other old things that sometimes less is more.

[Geraldine Powell]

Thank you all for the advice. I am going to approach this slowly. It has been humid since I got this camera, so the wood may have swelled. The weather is supposed to be drier soon, so the problem may resolve . I will examine it very closely again and I may try the graphite if the problem persists after the humidity goes down..
I do not want to disassemble it as the bellows are fragile.

[Jim Andrada]

I just happen to have the front standard from a Seneca Improved in my hand as I type (well it's sitting on the table when I actually bang on the keys!)

Holding it so the front is facing away from you the knob on the right raises and lowers the lens board while the knob on the left locks the motion - there is a tendency for the left hand knob to lock itself as you turn the right hand knob.
Mahogany is pretty stable so not sure humidity would cause the problem. Sometimes there is enough wear on the tracks that they get pretty sticky in spots or sometimes the lens board carrier gets cocked a little bit due to play in the grooves and jams

I've also noticed that if you loosen the locking knob until it hits the stop and push the other knob in and out and shift the drive shaft back adn forth a few times it sometimes loosens up.

A little powdered graphite in the track can't hurt anything as long as you don't get it blowing around inside the camera.

I have an unImp[roved Seneca as well and the locking knob on it also has a tendency to lock itself up.

[Geraldine Powell]

Thank you everybody. I got it loose finally by slowly forcing it up the track. Underneath, the wood was slightly rough and very dirty. I cleaned as much as I could reach. Now, it is going up and down quite freely but it does squeak a bit at the bottom. I did the pushing the drive shaft back and forth a bit also before it loosened so that may have helped.
It is great to get it working.
Geraldine

[Jim Andrada]

I actually took the lensboard carrier on mine completely out of the standard to clean it off and let me get at the tracks

They've peened the end of the drive shaft over a bit to prevent the locking knob from coming off but if you grasp the fixed end firmly enough with something like a small padded vise grip carefully set to the right size and another on the locking knob you can indeed get the locking knob (or the driving knob - doesn't matter!) off the shaft and pull the shaft out of the standard. Takes a bunch of wiggling but it WILL come out. I cleaned mine and cleaned out the track and even touched a couple of spots with sandpaper - very very fine (maybe 300 - 400 grit)

You have to be careful as it's easy to snap off the wings of the carrier (don't ask me how I know!!!) but a couple of drops of liquid hide glue applied with the tip of a toothpick is your friend in such a situation.

Now all I have to do is fabricate a new rear extension for my UNimproved Seneca. The "improvement" seems to have included changing the size of the slot the brass supports run in as well as replacing a double slot with a single slot.

[John Koehrer]

I'd tend to stay away from grafite especially since parts of the wood may be unfinished(rough).
A light touch with a fine grit sandpaper and a small application of a HARD wax should keep it going smoothly.
Canning wax just rubbed on doesn't require polishing or any further touchup. Ditto for ski wax.

[E. von Hoegh]

I'd tend to stay away from grafite especially since parts of the wood may be unfinished(rough).
A light touch with a fine grit sandpaper and a small application of a HARD wax should keep it going smoothly.
Canning wax just rubbed on doesn't require polishing or any further touchup. Ditto for ski wax.

If you read my post, you will see that I did not recommend applying dry graphite.
Graphite and beeswax; melt the beeswax and add some powdered graphite, mix it up and let it cool. Rub the solidified beeswax/graphite on the working surfaces of the wood, as you would canning wax (parrafin) or any other solid wax.

[Tobey69]

I do not want to disassemble it

[C. D. Keth]

I do not want to disassemble it

How is this comment useful in any way? It's not even your camera.

[Jim Andrada]

Maybe just repeating what the OP said about not wanting to disassemble it???

Which of course makes my comment about sliding the lens board carrier completely out of the track a bit moot.

Re graphite - I would never spray it around - but I would just barely touch the graphite with the tip of a pointed artists brush and tap it on some paper and then lightly touch the brass tracks with the tip of the brush. Beeswax and graphite would go on the wood parts - or just a good wax without the graphite.