1904 Seneca View 5x7 restoration.

[pdexposures]

Great job! How long has it taken so far?

And welcome to the site.

Mike

Its been about a week. But I've only been working on it when I get around to it.

More recently I have been re-polishing everything with a new and better polish that gets rid of more of the grim that was on there. Right now the camera is off the rails and in a few pieces. I had intended to post more photo's but my digital camera decided to not save anything I shot... go figure

[Ian Grant]

Nice one, I've being doing the same with a quarter plate camera, in worse condition

A new screen is cheap and extremely easy, get some #400 and #600 grit Silicon carbide powder, and a piece of glass to fit, as well as a square of plate glass 3"x3" to use to grind the screen. Takes less than 10 minutes a screen, I just made a dozen screens - quarter plate, half plate, full plate, 10x8 and 5x4 and some 9x12cms for less than £15/$25

Ian

[pdexposures]

get some #400 and #600 grit Silicon carbide powder,
Ian

Where did you get your powder? I've only found it online so far.

[Ian Grant]

I bought mine online in the UK, delivery was fast it arrived less than 24hrs later, it's not expensive. Look for a local Lapidary suppliers, or a club as it's used for stone polishing,

Grind with the #400 first then the finer $600 if you want a finer screen.

Ian

[ic-racer]

Nice work. I had a similar adventure here (link points to thread on Century 8x10 restoration).

[pdexposures]

Another update, and the last of the cleaning before i get back into the serious work.

I ended up taking off all the rails and re-polishing them with a different compound. They came out much better.


Just look at that shine


Put the base back together and set it on the tripod


I then returned my attention to the front of the camera again and took of the entire front lens carrier.


There was some junk under there that was hard to get rid of


I also noticed that some of the material to keep light out was coming off


So I hammered it back in, realistically however this will need to be replaced


I then turned my attention to the rear of the camera


Taking off the springs


More dust

[pdexposures]

And even more I couldnt see when I had just peered into it


Before on the bottom and after on the top


All four polished up


Parts everywhere


Once that was done I was able to mount the camera back onto the rails


Secured down the metal basis for the setting knobs with some wood safe glue



Haha, my smallest camera on my biggest


I then turned my attention to the tripod, and applied some liquid gold to it



Well thats it for now. Still waiting for the lens, should have it sometime next week with any luck. And then I can start making a lens board for it. Ground glass is coming soon!

[pdexposures]

It's been a long while since my last update. Unfortunatly I haven't been able to get around to working any more on this until this past weekend. Went to Blue Moon Camera and Machine here in St. Johns and looked at the lens options they had for an hour. Debating on price, image circle, focal length, and many other options. At one point I had 10 lenses sitting on the counter. Some dated to 1911, others were made in the 80s. I just couldn't decide. So I ended up choosing one that was pretty easy on the wallet. And my very first Nikon lens ever.

It is a Nikkor-W 180mm f5.6. It's pretty fast and going to be very wide on the 5x7. Which I tend to shoot a lot in other formats as well so it will suit me. Plus I got it for a damn good price. Not to mention it will be fantastic on the 4x5 monorail camera I inevitably will get. The only downside is that the image circle will barely cover 5x7 plus some very small movements.

Right now the lens board is being fabricated for me by Blue Moon as well. I will have the camera back in my hands in about two weeks ready to shoot.

[pdexposures]

Finished the ground glass, it's pretty rough around the edges but it was my first one and I will certainly be making more considering this is about 120x cheaper than buying one from B&H.



It works!!

[Ian Grant]

That's very rough

Get re-grinding, you can equal or better a Steve Hopf screen, no Satin Snow GVB any more

Ian