Restoring my "new" Agfa Ansco 8x10.

[Scyg]

Thanks! It seems slow going while I'm doing it, but when I look back, it's not so bad.
As for the racks, they were held in with little finishing nails - a little prying and they came out. A few of the nails were salvageable, but most weren't, so I'll be replacing all of them. My measurements of the old ones match 1/2" #18s, 1/2" long. All I could get without ordering online were 5/8", but there's enough wood to accommodate that and I can use the extra holding power. The modern nails seem to have slightly bigger heads, so I'll have to be careful.

[Wayne]

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.

I must have missed where it was house paint. I saw gray and assumed it was the original gray. Is it cherry wood ya think?

[Scyg]

Front standard clamped up using supplementary pieces of wood:

[Scyg]

I must have missed where it was house paint. I saw gray and assumed it was the original gray. Is it cherry wood ya think?

I can't tell exactly what kind of paint it was, but it was super-crumbly and was sloppily applied to the original varnish - in fact there's still stuff I won't be able to get off on the bellows. Ugly thing to do to any camera. And yes, I think all Anscos were cherry, regardless of the finish.

[Scyg]

So there was one thing I needed to fix that went beyond stripping and regluing - the front standard had a crack in the bottom, where it locked into the base rail. You can see that in the third picture in the second post in this thread.

Since the crack was very long and there was evidence of previous attempts to fix it (a nail driven through it, which I can only assume didn't do a whole lot of good), I decided to do it right. First I removed the loose piece:



Then I rabbeted out the damaged area:



And finally glued in a strip of oak (the camera is cherry, but I don't have any and happen to have a large-ish stash of salvaged oak, which should be more resilient than the original wood to boot):



Anyhow, that's the end of the big surgery. Now on to sanding, staining and oiling the wood, and then reattaching the hardware. I may not be very realistic here, but I'd love to be able to take this box out for a spin by Sunday.

[Dugan]

Congratulations on more great progress!

[jim_jm]

Thanks! It seems slow going while I'm doing it, but when I look back, it's not so bad.
As for the racks, they were held in with little finishing nails - a little prying and they came out. A few of the nails were salvageable, but most weren't, so I'll be replacing all of them. My measurements of the old ones match 1/2" #18s, 1/2" long. All I could get without ordering online were 5/8", but there's enough wood to accommodate that and I can use the extra holding power. The modern nails seem to have slightly bigger heads, so I'll have to be careful.

I found that inserting the nails as far as possible was essential to smooth function of the focusing gear along the track. Even one nail that was protruding would jam the gear. A small chisel and hammer helped to drive them down into the track as far as possible.

Here's my 8x10 2D that I refurbished last year. I also like the brass to have some patina, and I want the wood to show it's age. Treatment of the wood was just for purposes of repair and preservation. The Packard shutter is too big to fit behind the lens board, so a front-mount was necessary for the 15.5 inch Wollensak lens. The shutter definitely needed a repaint as it was rusted inside and out, but the shutter blades and pistons were good.
There's something satisfying about returning one of these old beasts to working condition. Be prepared to get lots of curious glances and questions when you take yours out to shoot.

[Scyg]

Sweet!

[Scyg]

At the last moment I chickened out and decided against a pure oil finish, and opted for a satin wipe-on poly - couldn't find good info on how oil would interact with the MinWax stain I used.
Anyway, in my enthusiasm totally forgot tomorrow's Mother's Day, and there's still yard work waiting for me. No chance of finishing the project this weekend, I'm afraid.

[Roger Thoms]

Your project is coming along nicely, seems you’re the right person to bring this baby back to life. Yeh, Mothers Day is definitely more important than your camera project. Plus every time I try and rush a finishing project I mess it up. I'm also a big fan of Satin finishes, much classier in my book, plus I find them more forgiving.

I've been enjoying your project

Roger