Garolite grades for darkslides?

[Colin Graham]

I adjusted the slot until I got the clearance just right. I erred a little on the loose side; didn't want the slides seizing up on some snowy pass. The stuff doesn't sand very well. Leave a little float room for the septum as well so it can expand and contract. You shouldn't have to worry about light tightness if the slots are deep enough and painted matte black- I just used a sharpie for the hard-to-paint areas like the slots. The main thing is to just make sure nothing can reflect the light around the 180 degree bend of the darkslide slots. The slots on plastic holders are pretty loose, and shallow as well.

I envy you with your project, makes me want to start on another. I had a great experience with mine, frustrations and all.

[Steve Goldstein]

I envy you with your project, makes me want to start on another. I had a great experience with mine, frustrations and all.

Thanks, I'm getting excited about it. On the other hand, with yours finished, you've got the time to go out and make photographs! This is time I'm already pretty short on now, and will have even less of once I start cutting wood. Ah, the insanity of it all...

[David A. Goldfarb]

Just out of curiosity, have you looked into carbon fiber for darkslides? Chamonix holders use CF darkslides. It's more expensive, but I'm thinking it might be possible to make the holders lighter that way. A darkslide isn't that heavy, but with larger formats, 10 of them for a kit of five holders could add up. If you're making your own holders from scratch, the septum could also be CF.

I found some of the technical details on robotics sites, which use all this stuff, and CF (depending on the type) is about 2/3 the density of Garolite, and is about 2-3 times stronger, so say you made them half the thickness, you would end up with 1/3 the weight per darkslide. The big questions would be--is 1/32" CF sufficiently rigid, and is it sufficiently opaque?

At least one of the robotics suppliers I saw will cut CF sheets to size, so if it made sense, I could be tempted to get a set of CF darkslides to lighten up my 8x10" or 11x14" kit.

[Steve Goldstein]

I've thought about CF but hadn't seriously looked into it, mainly because I didn't know where to get it (I didn't search very hard). You're right, though, the potential weight savings can't be ignored. I was planning to buy sheets of Garolite (1/32 and 1/16) just to play around, they're cheap enough - I should add a sheet of CF to the mix as well. Thanks for the tip about the robotics guys!

[David A. Goldfarb]

Here's the source that I found for CF sheets cut to size--

http://www.robotmarketplace.com/mark...rbonfiber.html

I didn't shop extensively to find the best price, but this looked like an easy way to order. Let us know how it turns out!

[Colin Graham]

What a great idea, and such a cool site! Thanks David.

[David A. Goldfarb]

They offer sample packs, and if you click on the FAQ, there are some good descriptions of the different thicknesses. I'm guessing .023" (.58mm) would do it, or .041" (1.0mm) at the most.