My Century 10A Restoration

[akfreak]

More Resto work tonight. I would say I am 75% done on the camera. I bought some materials to fix my stand, I need to find the table tilt assembly bad. I guess I will make a notched system on my table pole until I find the table tilter.

I also need to make one focus knob, brass ring and a pin. If I had a lathe it would be easy. I will rough it in with a belt sander and finish it with a file sand paper. PITA but you know someone has to do it.

Some shots of where we made it to tonight.
Missing one knob


Here you see all wood baby and enough of the old finish to blend in with a nice mild chemical conditioner ans elbow grease with fine steel wool.


I need to buy a can of Famowood wood filler (the best stuff in the world)
The front lens board and hardware is ready. Also the sliding carriage is ready for my 8x10 spring back, that is on the way (A Kodak,Folmer & Schwing). I had to really pull out the stops to find that puppy. I owe someone big time. I bet it will be here tomorrow.


The bellows is in pretty good over all condition. A few corners have holes and I need to add some stiffeners so it will fold up perfetly (like new). I plan to overlap some rigid stiffeners with contact adhesive then spray the inside with a black paint. I heard someone mention a Black Tulip paint like it if flexible and can fill voids to help with light leaks. I am still researching this. Wost case I will spay flat Rino Liner (truck bed liner) inside there.



All for now, if any of you have any donor camera stand parts, I need the table angle adjustment hardware. More to come.

[Harold_4074]

Having just wrestled the bellows back into a 10A, I can suggest that it is relatively easy if you a) keep the screws in place and protruding just slightly, so that wiggling the frame will let the screws "find" their original holes, and b) use one or more spring clamps (mine are Jorgensen, have bright orange vinyl grips and tips and look a bit like enormous metal clothespins) to hold the bellows frame to the standard until you have a screw or two engaged on each side. This will let you extend the bellows, flattening the pleats and gaining access for your (long and skinny) screwdriver. Piece of cake. (Replacing the original slotted flat-head screws with Phillips drive also makes life easier. )

If you try to patch leaks on the inside of the bellows, use something thin. Closing the bellows will pinch that material and put the outside leather under tension. Old leather is not likely to be happy with being stretched...

I hope your inbound 8x10 back is a Century back and not a 2D---I was mildly surprised to find out that they are not compatible. Rather than deplete the world's remaining supply of Century backs, I scored a metal 8x10 back (Cambo) from KEH and will mount it to an adaptor that goes in place of the sliding back. While it would be nice to have an historically correct setup, it would also be nice to be able to actually make 8x10s using the lenses that I wanted that 9x9 lensboard for in the first place

[akfreak]

"The Back", I was sold, was from who I call an Extreme Expert in the field of Large Format Cameras. He said this "It is an Eastman back totally correct for that camera. Would also work on a Folmer Graflex Century Universal, or Kodak 2D 8X10.

I dont want to mention his name, I reached out to him as a last resort. I do not want his mail box to be flooded with inquires on camera parts. I am quite sure he was doing me a favor by selling me this back. He had it stashed, "thinking it's only a matter of time until some big studio camera comes along that only has a 5X7 back." I am sure he is right. I only hope that whatever he finds is complete and in mint condition with the proper back. I would never want to intrude into his projects. He is a very very nice man. World class Photog as well.

If I ever sell this camera I will be offering it to him first, at a steal. I dont see that happening but you never know what will happen. I will post pics when I get it, it should be on my stoop as we speak. I am still at the office (playing poker) and trying to copy and paste on a cell phone is kinda a pain in the neck. I am so glad my Driod phone has a speak to type feature.

Thanks for the info. on the bellows. I have some bellows tape from 3m, very thin indeed. Also I only need a stiffener on one or two of the sections of the bellows. There is a flat section in the bellows close to the front frame. It rests on a block of wood held up by a metal support. I have to assume the block support serves to keep the bellows from sagging. To get the bellows back to the correct shape I need to put a stiffener on two sections there. It sat in that position too long and now has a permanent flat spot.

I dont need to remove the bellows, it is all stripped down to wood and I am ready to start conditioning the wood prepping it for the danish oil hand rub finish. I have cherry for the cherry parts and mahogany oil for the mahogany parts. I plan research what finish was used originally. It appears to be a semi gloss to gloss lacquer for the top coat.

[Harold_4074]

It will be interesting to know if your back fits--for all I know, there are date ranges where compatibility exists, and others where it does not. My 2D backs will definitely not go on the 10A, or vice-versa. My first thought was to make an adapter using the same seating and pins as the 10A sliding back, but then I realized that the sliding back is itself an adapter, and it would be easier to make the interface directly to the camera. Hence the Cambo hybridization.

Could you post a snapshot of the bellows support? My bed rails have empty screw holes where that part should be, and I am curious as to what it looked like. (I also have quite a few other empty holes that mounted accessories at one time---for all I know, there was a flash powder tray hanging off of there.....)

Your friend was right about 5x7 backs--the Century 10A and an 8A that I picked up both came with usable 5x7 backs, but the 8A's 8x10 back is in "kit form" and needs several pieces of glass, brass and mahogany before it can have much utility.

Good luck with your project; it looks like you are doing a beautiful job so far.

[akfreak]

OK, I need to make a clarification my camera is bit a 10A it is a Grafles Master Studio the back is a sliding carriage and I had to use a rabbiting router bit and make a 1/16 wide and 1/8 deep corner removal step. This allows my 8x10 back to fit nad still crates a light trap that wont fog the film. In the 5x7 back the light tap on the springback is 1/2". On the correct Studio Camera 8x10 back it is like 3/4" deep to create the light trap between the sliding carriage abd the spring back.

I was told they did this to prevent photogs from taking studio backs to the field. All of the Kodak 8x10 bcks have the 1/16 light trap lip. sorry typos on a cell phone

[Harold_4074]

Good move. I originally planned to use my 2D back on the Century, but decided that, all things considered, giving each camera a full complement of accessories would be a better goal (hence the notion of adapter replacments bearing contemporary spring backs).

I like your explanation for the non-interchangeability; my guess would be that Century backs going to the field with 2Ds probably found their way to the homes of the owners of the 2Ds and not back to the studio. In the 1970s, the U.S. Army had the bright idea of buying ordinary pickup trucks to use stateside instead of special Army vehicles. The cost of repair parts would be much less if they were interchangeable with civilian ones. Unfortunately, the parts were then....interchangeable with civilian ones....and the government trucks kept turning up with defective starters, alternators, carburetors and other easily exchanged components

[akfreak]

It was a simple fix really, I needed to make that little 1/16 x1/8th stair step on the sliding carriage, the rest aligns up and fits like a glove.

If a 1/8th" light trap works on a field camera why not a studio. Flat-blacked the little Step notch and she is good to go The 5x7 still fits the same exact way because nothing has changed..

One more day of work and I have the weekend to get her close to finished. I cant wait to start testing. I plan to make my own GG and test with Paper, I dont have any film yet!

[Harold_4074]

akfreak,

I see that you have an original lensboard. If you want to make cheap, simple boards, you can do it by laminating two pieces of 1/4 MDF or Masonite cut to the front standard opening and the recess for the lensboard. A coat of varnish on the outside and flat black on the inside and you're good to go. A couple of weekends ago I made up half a dozen at once, so I could play with lenses that I might not want to tie up a good board on.

I would use birch aircraft plywood if I could get it easily; it holds wood screws much better than the composites do. On the other hand, I usually use 2-56 machine screws with nuts and washers to attach the flange, so it doesn't really matter.

[akfreak]

Thanks forr the heads up on the lens boards. I will most likely glue up some hardwood panels, and send them through an overhead sander to get the correct thickness and use a shaper table to get the angles

[Harold_4074]

The lip on my Century is almost precisely 1/4" deep, so the laminated assembly just drops in.

If you make hardwood boards, be sure that you have end grain on all four edges--this, along with resistance to warping, seems to be the reason for the built-up structure in the originals. Failing that, put the long grain vertically since the top and bottom are where the stress is. (You could still have a board split vertically, particularly with a large lens opening, but at least the optics wouldn't fall out of the camera in that case.)

The nice thing about these lensboards is that the tolerances are really forgiving; the bad thing is that lenses demanding this size board are really huge and heavy.