Sweet!
Sweet!
Spring back fabrication is coming along....
One-half inch deep surround for the film holder.
Top and bottom are one-half inch wide to fit the 1/2 in brass springs to come.
Just need to glue on a 1/4in piece on the baffle side of the rib lock and the light trap in the back.
Chopped pieces for the ground glass frame today, so I will be gluing those up tomorrow.
On the main camera body, I have it all sanded down. I painted the frame for the front box a glossy black. I think it will complement the cherry once the cherry is finish-coated.
I also glued in a couple more 1/2 x 1/2 pieces to the inside of the frame to have something to screw the leather handle brackets to for support and to avoid creating an opening into the light tight body of the camera.
I fabricated the front box for the 159mm Wolly over the weekend. Added the rear flange and the front lens board frame and light trap yesterday.
Getting the measurements right for this piece was critical for hyperfocal fixed focus, so I got out the 8x10, a steel tape measure, and a metal ruler and measured the distances to the hyperfocal point (31') and from the front edge of the lens board frame to the rear of the camera body a second time before ripping and chopping.
I've got more work to do on the ground glass frame (as well as painting, staining, finish coats, sanding, etc., and hardware), but I'm happy to have (mostly) completed the woodwork fabrication.
And, yes, the front box and lens will invert into the main camera body for safer transport.
Weight right now, including the gg frame and acrylic gg is 1lb 15oz, so I'm estimating a final weight around 2.25lb (not counting lens and film holder of course).
So far, so good!
Got the tripod socket mount installed and added some reinforcement for a couple of joints inside.
The socket mount will also serve as a convenient grip for hand held shooting.
Just about ready to stain and paint.
I'm excited--a 4 5/16" (110mm) Extreme Wide Angle Wollensak lens is on its way to me. I'm hoping this lens will cover 4x10 with no movement, which will be perfect for this project. If it does, then I won't need to use the bulkier 121 Super Angulon for wide angle. Plus the 110mm should only need about 3/4" extension beyond the main camera body. Much more compact than the 3" front box for the 159mm Wolly.
Last edited by Michael Roberts; 27-Aug-2019 at 18:32.
Got the flat black painting done on the inside of the main body, front box, and spring back yesterday. Then stained the front of the main body, front box, and the spring back and the edges of the gg frame.
When I started this build, I was planning to clear coat the cherry without any stain, but after wiping down when sanding, I thought the color would turn out lighter than I wanted. I noticed a 12x20 rear frame that I made out of cherry a few years ago that I had stained red mahogany, and it came out so pretty that I decided to stain and finish this 4x10 the same way. The only problem was glue residue on the wood. This is normally not a problem if I clear coat, but it can be a big problem when staining. Any glue residue will block the stain from the wood. So I expected the staining to be a semi-disaster. To mitigate this as much as possible, I sanded and sanded before staining.
The result of the staining was much better than I hoped for. There are only a few places where the stain revealed I need to resand and stain. Overall, I'm really happy with the color and how the wood grain shows better with the stain. This will look much better after three finish coats, but here are some in-process pix for anyone who might be following along.
A few more pix:
1. Flat black inside of front box
2. Wood grain detail of front box
3. Wood grain detail of lower part of main camera body (note the light stain from dried glue at the joint of the upper box and lower body--I'll paint over this with a matching color since it is too hard to reach to sand and it's normally out of sight on the under part of the camera)
4. Ground glass frame and spring back
The last shot of the spring back and gg frame is ugly. Both of these pieces are fabricated entirely from basswood, which is very light color. I'm going to cement cherry veneer to the outside edges of the spring back and the facing side of the gg frame so they will match the rest of the camera. Then I will stain and finish the veneer to match. They won't end up ugly.
Very good
If you are happy we are happy
Tin Can
Hah! Thanks Randy.
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