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Graflex D 4X5 Repair Update
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 24, 2014 5:21 am    Post subject: Graflex D 4X5 Repair Update Reply with quote

A few months ago I began repairing my Graflex D so that I could free the Elgeet Navitar and make it an interchangeable-lens 4X5 SLR. It took about three hours, but I chipped away all the epoxy on the "lens mount" and revealed two layers of thick foam. The foam pryed out fine and revealed a plywood housing, like a back-less cube, held onto the camera by six brads. So that cruddy nail work explained the gobs of epoxy.





I spent the last two months working out a system by which I could mount Calumet 4X4 lens boards to the front of the camera. Coincidentally, the Calumet boards nest nicely in the folding cover alcove. I tried to think of a flip-down locking mechanism, a rotating lock, various things but none made a TON of sense. Because the original lens plate retainers were still in place, I even devised a system that fit into their and then had a tubular piece of rigid plastic as a compression-fit for lens swaps. That, I decided, was some cockamamey nonsense.



At the local plastics supplier I saw a piece of remnant 3/8" (~14mm) diameter clear acrylic. I had them cut the nine-inch piece into two 4 1/8-inch (113mm) lengths. The opening is 4 1/8 inches wide, and the guy cutting them left an extra 1/8 on, which was perfect. Better to have to hand-sand it shorter than make it magically longer.



So I hand-sanded the first into place and it fit super snugly. I was going to epoxy it but wanted to test it first. My idea was to put it about an inch below the top and have it hold the lens in place. That way, it wouldn't tip forward. And what kind of lens is going to slip out bottom first, AMIRIGHT?

I used an old Kodak 117mm on a Calumet board as a test. It's my lightest lens, so if it didn't slip around that was a good start. It fell right out. IWASWRONG.

I hand-sanded the second cylinder to the proper length and put it on the bottom of the lens. Perfection.


As an aside, yes those are googley eyes on the lens board.

So, I need to get the Navitar into a Calumet board and then test iut out. I also have some other lenses to test -- a couple BCX lenses in the 150mm range (they may be too short) and a whopping 300mm FL BCX that works out to f2.3 if I can mount it without any blockage. It's an enormous piece of glass.

My next project is to make a housing for that so I can mount it on the front of the Graflex. I have not yet determined how to do that AND get it to stay in place.