Pix of your home-built cams here please

[Erik L]

Thanks Colin! This thread is what inspired me to give it a try. After seeing all the inventive people and their ideas, it was just a matter of "just do it" It is rather fun I think to use something home made, a little pride maybe and more connection to the act of shooting, at least in my case.
regards,
Erik

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Eric, very nice job for the first camera! It is great to use a camera that you build yourself. I guess I should post the 11x14 I just finished here to make it official.

Jim

[Colin Graham]

Man, I think Erik's camera is the best homemade I've seen period, first camera or not.

But Jim, I'm really curious about those wooden standards. Is the rear standard articulated? Are they very strong? Interesting approach.

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Man, I think Erik's camera is the best homemade I've seen period, first camera or not.

But Jim, I'm really curious about those wooden standards. Is the rear standard articulated? Are they very strong? Interesting approach.

Colin, yes to both questions. I was trying to reduce the weight and I wanted to see if my design would be strong enough. It is stable. Could it be more so? More than likely but I think if my building tolerances were tighter it would be. Remember I'm using mostly hand tools.

JIm

[Colin Graham]

No shame in handtools. My first cameras I used a hand drill and tiny files to make all the metal parts. I still use hand planes and chisels for most of the fit and finish of the woodworking. I hate power tools generally, routers I loathe especially, nothing ruins the peace of a quiet afternoon faster. What woodworkers in the Queen Anne period could do with hand tools simply beggars the imagination.

[Steve Smith]

I hate power tools generally, routers I loathe especially.

Me too. I only use a power tool if I absolutely have to. In my other life as a rock 'n' roll guitar hero I like to have full use of all of my fingers. I think the potential for error is much lower with hand tools.

I used to watch New Yankee Workshop on TV and I was amazed that even putting in small nails was done with a huge compressed air nail gun.



Steve.

[Jim Fitzgerald]

I like the feel you get with a finely honed chisel. They way it slices the wood and the control is nice. The hand finishing process is really rewarding when the polish appears. I love my dovetail saw!!

Jim

[Colin Graham]

I used to watch New Yankee Workshop on TV and I was amazed that even putting in small nails was done with a huge compressed air nail gun.

Steve.

I know! I have a morbid fascination with those woodworking shows. There's another one on PBS in the US called The Router Workshop. Everything gets the treatment. The dust and din reminds me of what it might be like to work in a grain silo being filled.

The power goes out here so often it's nice to be able to keep working. It reminds me of being out in the field with a camera. There's a calm deliberation to the craft of it that makes it equally rewarding in its own way.

[Curt]

When I was doing woodworking I used to go to the woodworking shows held in Atlanta and alternating Anaheim, Norm Abram was always there at the Delta booth, he's a year older than me and a great guy, very friendly. After a couple of times he remembered my name.

I took a router workshop from Bob Rosendahl, a Canadian, in Seattle a bunch of years ago. he can work so fast it's unbelievable. Like professionals in other fields the proficiency is very high.

[Colin Graham]

No disrespect intended, it's just not for me. I'm sure glad I don't have to try to make a living building cameras. That would take all the fun out of it for sure. I'm a carpenter by trade and use powertools all day and it's finally wrecked the desire to work on my house and fix things up around here. But working in a quiet shop with a sharp handplane is still like meditation.... Meanhwhile, my wife's barn still sits unfinished!