Restoring my "new" Agfa Ansco 8x10.

[William Whitaker]

Refinishing the camera with the knobs in place should be OK since the metal knobs should be resistant to the finish applied.
But another thought.
Are the cross-axles (focusing shafts) affixed to the camera with pressed metal clips which are then screwed into the wood? Or do the axles actually thread through the wood?
If the former, then they conceivably could be removed non-destructively....
Just thinking out loud....

[Scyg]

The focusing shaft is held in place with clips, so no problem. The difficulty is with the rise shaft on the front standard, which sits in a slot through the standard itself. And the difficulty is with more than just the finish, since the glue joints there seem a bit loose too.


EDIT: On the FB Hand-Made Camera Forum I was just informed that the pins can be punched out. Off to try it I go.

[Scyg]

Disassembly of the camera is almost complete: all I still need to do is to take apart the ground glass frame.
It looks like I'm not going to be taking a few bits of hardware off after all: the rear standard arms are riveted into the frame, and I don't want to mess with them.



Also on the rear standard, the swing lock knob shafts are flared out at the end, and I'd have to trim the flared bits to get them off - again, not worth it.



As I suspected, pretty much all of the glue joints came apart with very little prodding. Since I'm going for usability, I will be regluing everything properly once I have the finishes stripped. This is what the front standard looks like now:



The thing that gave me the most trouble was the bellows - it was screwed into the standard using little steel screws, and since the camera was stored in a damp place, pretty much all of them were rusty. I did my best, but stripped the slots on about half of them, especially on the front standard. I finally resorted to the most hair-raising method - prying everything apart, praying I don't rip the bellows or break its frames in the process. I finally managed to get it out without doing any damage, but I'm guessing I got a few extra gray hairs in the process.
I actually started to take off the paint and the original finish from the bed rail, but my heat gun quit on me and the local hardware store was closed already, so it'll have to wait for tomorrow. Anyway, it's been a pretty productive afternoon.

[Scyg]

Done stripping all finishes. It probably would have been easier to buy a kit camera. If you count my time, probably cheaper, too . But would it have been as much fun?

[Scyg]

Progress is being made. After reading up on wood glue and regluing old joints, I decided to clean all the joints with hot water to get rid of any hide glue remnants.
As I've had to repair splits in the various parts of the camera, which has required a fair amount of sanding and resulted in uneven patches of wood color, I've decided to give everything a red mahogany stain after I'm done. It's not really what the original finish looked like, but I wasn't in love with the greenish tinge it had anyway.
After considering some options I've decided for a minimal cleaning of the brass hardware, to retain as much of the patina on it as possible. There's not much I find more off-putting than shiny brass. I know lots of people love it, but I just can't stand the stuff. Still considering painting it flat black, but I'm worried it'll just start coming off after a few times in the field. Before the virus I had access to a powder-coating station, but I don't want to wait until the all-clear.

[Wayne]

I'm also not impressed by shiny brass or polished wood, and whats more, I love the drab gray of my 8x10 Universal. I vote for restoring the gray to its former glory. Did you figure out if that's what yours is? This page says they are rear-focus but clearly that's not true for all of them.

http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Ansco_View_Cameras

[Scyg]

I figure it's an early Universal. The original finish was definitely not gray: there was plenty of the original stuff left under the gray house paint. Also, my understanding is that the gray ones all had nickel-plated hardware, as is the case with my 5x7.

Once I stain the wood, I'll apply a nice, low-key oil finish, so no danger of things going shiny.

[Scyg]

Starting to put things back together again.

[Dugan]

Cool! Nice progress!

[Peter De Smidt]

Great progress. What worked best for removing the focusing racks?