Waterhouse Stop Fabrication Alternatives in 2019?

[Jay Decker]

https://www.sculpteo.com/en/

This is the kind of service that I was hoping someone else had already tried, because I don't want to buy my own "ring laser gyroscopically stabilized plasma cutter"!

Have you used their laser cutting service to cut waterhouse stops or any other components? If so, what material did you choose and how did it come out?

[Jac@stafford.net]

Have you used their laser cutting service to cut waterhouse stops or any other components? If so, what material did you choose and how did it come out?

The obstacle for such services to me is that I must supply a file that can only be created with special software and I'm just no good with CAD unless it is as simple as e-machine shop, which I did use when I had a PC.

So you are not alone!

[domaz]

The obstacle for such services to me is that I must supply a file that can only be created with special software and I'm just no good with CAD unless it is as simple as e-machine shop, which I did use when I had a PC.

So you are not alone!

This site has an online tool for designing your laser cuts, I've used them to cut aluminum lens board and they did a great job. The problem is I imagine is either they don't cut in the right thickness (too thick/too thin) or the cuts you need to do aperture blades are just to small for them to support.

[Jay Decker]

The problem is I imagine is either they don't cut in the right thickness (too thick/too thin) or the cuts you need to do aperture blades are just to small for them to support.

One would tend to think that laser cutters or CNC Routers who can cut 1 or 2mm thick metal (aluminum or steel) should be able to readily do the work. Particularly for my lens, which has a barrel diameter of about 3 inches, which to get stops from f/8 to f/45, the stop holes would range from 2-3/16 to 3/8 inch in diameter.

Expected that someone would have already blazed this trail and could refer us to someone who we could order stops from if we provided them with a modest amount of basic information, e.g., something less than CAD or dimensional vector files. It might appear that that technological promise is still there on the horizon.

[ic-racer]

I was thinking of have Sculpteo do a 3d printing with opaque material. Free 3d software here:https://www.blender.org

If the dimensions are correct on the 3d printed ones, you can use that as a template the make the final one out of brass. Otherwise re-do it and print up another set through Scuppteo. This way you only have to make the brass ones once.

[Tin Can]

Tracy Storer of Mammoth camera did offer to make WHS a few years ago.

http://www.mammothcamera.com/mammothcameracompany.html

[Steven Tribe]

Dare I admit that I use nail scissors for the round hole? And turn the jagged edge into a perfect circle using a round object (from finger size to pencil size) covered with fine sandpaper?

[goamules]

...Expected that someone would have already blazed this trail and could refer us to someone who we could order stops from if we provided them with a modest amount of basic information, e.g., something less than CAD or dimensional vector files. It might appear that that technological promise is still there on the horizon.

My wife has a "cricket" cutter for craftwork. It's like a mini CNC cutting tool. I'm sure that would work. The issue is that cutting different sized holes in thin, soft materials is such an easy task, no one has bothered to list all the methods. But humans have been cutting holes since pre-historic times. You need to think outside the camera box. Ask a scrapbook housewife, a paste-up artist, or someone in other roles.

Most photographers that shoot old brass lenses either have the stops, ignore that they don't, make them somehow, or pay big bucks for an "expert" like Grimes to punch holes in plastic. The 4 people on the planet reading this thread have already answered.

Or simply google "how to cut a hole in cardboard" and find your own solution, like we all did.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bon-Tool...-304215396-_-N

[Jay Decker]

... The issue is that cutting different sized holes in thin, soft materials is such an easy task, no one has bothered to list all the methods...

The original question was not about how to cut holes in thin, soft material to make temporary stops. The intent was to findout if and how we can access technology services to go straight to permanent metal stops directly, inexpensively and without spending time (or purchasing tooling) to make them. What think I’ve heard so far is no one here has tried a direct technological based solution yet and folks are trying to kindly point me down the well trodden path of cutting stops out of soft material. And, this is to be expected. However, sometimes if you ask the question right you’ll find that one voice says, “Yeah, I’ve done that and here’s how I did it...”, and then the question is changed forevermore...

[Tin Can]

Rule Dies will cut right through soft brass using an Arbor press or Hydraulic press with larger diameters

My hammer and punch will also work on metal, did it for decades

OP never mentioned size

I know any soft material will scrape on WHS slots over time leaving 'dust' and debris inside the lens

Here's a housewife youtube cutting metal in her kitchen Die Cut Metal.wmv

ymmv