Kodak Eastman View 2D: Extension Rail fitting?

I have a Kodask 2D. I have had it for twenty years at least, having bought it at the Houston Camera show when it was at it's height. Got it for a few hundred dollars, but it came without the extension rail. kept thinking I'd get a rail somewhere, somertime.. Then life happened . . .and eventually the camera shows withered in the face of the onrushing digital world.

So I found one this past week on e-bay at a price I could justify to my financial manager (spouse) and it arrived yesterday. Its in much better condition than I had expected from the pics on the auction site . . . but"

The pegs that mate it with the rest of the focusing bed do not quite match up with the holes. As near as I can eye-ball it, the holes are about 1/16" too narrow center to center from the pegs. Initially I tried to just shave the holes a little with a needle file, but soon realized that this would take weeks and leave my fingeres bloody.

Any suggestions on doing this fitting mod? I want the pieces to go together securely without slop. As important (to me) is that I do not want to butcher the pieces just to get them together. The camera body and focusing bed are not in museum-quality condition, but do look good overall. Yet I still want the mod to look well done.

Any suggestions on how to do this neatly?

I would consider pulling the studs out, redrilling the holes, and epoxy them back in making sure they are straight.


Kent in SD

Makes you wonder whether this is a 2D extension at all, which makes me wonder if you are sure the tracks are correct even after you get it mated. You can wind the back right off your camera; there may be a catch at the back to depress to do this and then, temporarily and floppily, slide it on the back to check whether it fits the back tracks. Also check to make sure the catches mate at the back of the camera and the front of the extension.

I have mated up the extension rail with the focusing bed by partially screwing in the key shaped fastener while aligning the studs with the holes. The slight flair of the holes and the slight edge radius of the studs makes a tenuous mechanical connection that I will not force. Everything lines up Ok, but the studs are each ~1/16" or a little less wide of being concentric with the holes.

With the pieces aligned like this, the rear standard roles right back onto the extension rail geared track as smoothly as anyone would want. Both the main bed and the rail have three groovs for the front standard, rear standard and the tripod block. These match up perfectly. This and the fact that the finish matches pretty well is encouraging.

These cameras were manufactured continuously from the early 1920s through the mid 1960s I believe. During that time the mounting method for mating up the extension with the main bed rail changed at least once, from a bayonet sort of key to a screw-in fitting, which came later. I have seen extension rails with wooden pegs. The extension rail I have just gotten has metal studs, not wooden pegs. My assumption is that there was a change in the jigs used to drill the holes sdo the pegs and receiving holes matched.

I am convinced that the rail was made for a Kodak 2D. My cursory research shows that the camera was made some time in the 1940s a nd took wooden pegs. The extension rail was probably made somewhat later, with a change to metal studs on a very slightly different spacing.

I am thinking it would be less destructive to enlarge or elongate the receiving holes to accept the studs and fill the gap with wood putty or a mix of sawdust and glue.

Additional opinions and advice are welcome.

If it was me, I'd fill the holes and re-drill. That will be the cleanest and easiest on your fingers. Manually filing sounds like a literal pain.

My 2-D (from the '20s) and rail I bought at the same time, but the numbers on the camera and the rail don't match. Number on camera is "95". Number on rail is "286". They fit okay, altho there is some hesitation as the rear frame gears crosses that gap between camera and rail.

Pins on my rail are 0.250". Center-to-center distance of pins is 5.500". I wouldn't want to move the pins, even though they are what I consider the expendable piece. The holes on the camera side are worn at the opening and about 0.265". Varies from right to left. I guess I'd fill the holes on camera, maybe make a brass plate that could be inset on camera and use the needed spacing.

e

The pins on my 2-D from 1943-1944 are brass .25 diameter and spaced 5.503 center to center. Probably the 5.5 center to center spacing is the intended standard, and any change to match the holes to pins on Drew's camera should conform to this standard. If the pins are filed to fit the holes. the right files make this short work Protect the extension rail with a sheet of thin metal surrounding the pin while doing this. If the holes in the camera must be shifted, consider enlarging them in the right direction to take a short length of brass tubing from any hardware store. Then you can slide that tubing over the pins so the extension serves as a guide, and epoxy the tubes into the holes. A gunsmith with expertise in glass bedding rifle actions for competitive matches may advise you better than I can on the details of this type of repair. Consider that the camera and the extension bed should be acclimated to the same moisture content before undertaking this for best results.