Lens Flange? Rack and pinion?

[anton orlov]

I recently got a few old Petzval lenses including some with no name, but also a really nice Darlot and a Voigtlander.

The Darlot just needs a lens flange while the Voigtlander needs both the flange and the rack and pinion knob and the flap that would hold it to the gear... Any ideas on where I could get the flanges or the geared knob?

Thank you.

[Jon Shiu]

You can have flanges made by skgrimes.com. What size flanges do you need?

Jon

[anton orlov]

Thanks Jon,

I'm going to have to measure them out. I know the Darlot is going to be just over 3in and the rest of them are smaller.
Do you think they will need the lenses to be sent to them?

[goamules]

You can get lucky and sometimes find a matching Darlot flange. Grimes will charge about 100 dollars plus per flange. A local machinist would probably charge 1/3 that. The trick is finding one that can do it. Making knobs is probably not worth the expense.

[anton orlov]

Thanks Garrett,

Yeah $100 per flange is way more than I was hoping for.... But I think the knob would be kinda cool to have provided it's not more than $150 - I did get a pretty sweet deal on the Voigtlander and I think even with that expense it'll still be reasonable total in the end. I'll try to look for a local guy to do the work but if that's to no avail I might break down and buy one of those universal irises - have you ever worked with one? Are they strong enough for a 5-10 pound lens?

[goamules]

I've used an iris mount for years. And I would never use it for a large lens. About a 8" F3.8 or 10" F5 is the largest Petzval I'd trust one to hold. They're nice and secure for smaller lenses, but they only grip one thread and you are totally relying on their brake to hold tight.

[Jon Shiu]

If you can measure them, put a wanted to buy ad here on the classifieds. I have a bunch of miscellaneous flanges and others do also. Plus you can find them on ebay, but they are expensive.

Jon

[Tim Povlick]

I recently received some flanges / misc. work back from S.K. Grimes and it was all top quality.

For the older more desired lenses I believe the best possible work should be performed as we are not owners of this history but temporary caretakers.

_..--
Tim

[anton orlov]

Garrett, thanks - I'll consider buying one of those as it'll probably be less expensive than buying a flange for every lens in the future that might not come with it.

On the other hand - Jon - excellent idea, I'm gonna measure the lenses out tomorrow morning and see if people here might have one or two.

And Tim - excellent point man, I can't believe I own some of the lenses that came to me recently... imagining the images that might have been taken with them over time, studios they were in, locations they have traveled to.... just incredible. My main joy is that I am using some of them and they are not in a museum behind glass - equipment is not meant to be in a non-functioning collection - it's meant to be creating images!

Cheers Y'all!

[Steven Tribe]

I was very doubtful about universal iris clamps, but find them OK up to about 1/2 kilo (CDV petzval - 2" glass) with long lenses. Expect to do a renovation before they get reliable!

The tangential drive gear, its mount and the spacing of the 2/4 screws differs a great deal. Obviously, the curvature under the mount has to match the barrel curvature precisely. Just to illustrate - I did a finishing job with CDV recently and found "No.8" stamped underneath and on the barrel. So there were a lot of different sizes. There appear to be no conventions about spacing the 4 holes, either.