Camera Makers of Seattle Unite!

noexit · Oct 23, 2005

I wish I'd found this thread a few months ago, but I just found this site a few weeks ago. I live near Seattle and am in the pre-planning stage of building a 4x5 camera. It'd be cool to see how others are doing things.

barryjyoung · Oct 23, 2005

Hi, you are more than welcome to come by and talk cameramaking. We are meeting in Edmonds today precisely at whenever anybody shows up. I am sure I speak for other members as well as myself when I say we would love to meet and talk with you and toss about some camera making ideas.

Barry Young
cameramaker.com

noexit said:
I wish I'd found this thread a few months ago, but I just found this site a few weeks ago. I live near Seattle and am in the pre-planning stage of building a 4x5 camera. It'd be cool to see how others are doing things.

barryjyoung · Oct 23, 2005

Of course the commute from Tokyo might be a long one

noexit · Oct 27, 2005

Actually, I'm home from Tokyo for a few months. That commute would be a long one. I was busy on Sunday, but I'll definitely have to make it up there sometime.

barryjyoung · Oct 27, 2005

OK Mike, we will see you then

SchwinnParamount · Nov 6, 2005

Whoo hoo! fun day at Barry Young's house. Todays meeting of the Seattle Camera Makers was a good one. Andrew and I each had a turn at the metal lathe and made the tripod sockets for our camera baseboards out of shiny golden brass! Then while Andrew was planing 160" of cherry down to .25" for two of the cameras, I was putting the finishing touches on eric's walnut baseboard and my cherry baseboard. Barry and I decided to edge band my board using .5" cherry strips. These edges were planed to the thickness of my baseboard and a final sanding was done on the board.

About dinner time, the SCM'ers headed out to a Mongolian barbeque for dinner then back to Barry's house for a time of unwinding and watching 'Diehard'... an old favorite of a couple of us. There's still time for those of you who live around here to jump in with both feet. Just buy about 6 bf of your favorite hardwood and join us next time we meet. I don't have my cut list in front of me so the quantity may be off. PM Barry or myself before you buy it and we'll give you the correct amount.

We are working off of an excellent set of detailed camera plans that Barry has developed for an 8x10 field camera. If you want to get in on it now before the plans are officially released to the market, you'll have a chance to be a part of the fine tuning of the design. If you wait till they're done then you'll have to buy them from Barry... but I assure you they are worth the price!

Gustavo_Castilla · Nov 12, 2005

can some one recommend a gear size for 1114 camera?

barryjyoung · Nov 22, 2005

Hi Gustavo, how much will the standard you are moving weigh, how much pressure from the bellows, and how will it be guided? These three requirements are at the heart of your question. If it is a large bearing surface moving a heavy standard, it will have to be a heavier duty gear.

Barry Young
cameramaker.com

Gustavo_Castilla said:
can some one recommend a gear size for 1114 camera?

barryjyoung · Nov 28, 2005

The latest news from Seattle Camera Makers

I am remiss in my duties.I have failed to keep you up on what we have been up to. Sorry, I will try to do better. There was a small informal construction party on 11-19-05. In attendance were John and Andrew Austin, myself and the new and smiling face of John Berry.

John Berry brought many many wonderful toys which left my house covered in drool. We were all extremely impressed by both by Mr. Berry's taste and his allowance. Oh me oh my.

John and Andrew started work almost immediately (photos have been uploaded to the technical gallery here on APUG). They drilled some holes and counterbores in their baseboards, cut the grooves for the front focus rails, turned their tripod sockets on the metal lathe and then installed them. It was a very productive day indeed. The movie we viewed was Pollock starring Ed Harris.

So the status of 5 of the SCM cameras is as follows: The beseboards are finished being except for the scratch plates which will be attached right after I build the rotary counterbore routing jig for cutting the .032 deep X 4 inch diameter counterbore on the bottom of the baseboard. The tripod socket holes and counterbores are drilled and the tripod sockets are machined and installed (the first brass attached to wood). The front focus shaft grooves are milled and the pinion pockets are counterbored.

The next step is to finish machine the rails that go on the sides of the baseboards which guide the rear standard carriage and also guide the front focus frame. This is already done on two of the cameras we are making.

I am planning on having the shop open on Saturday 12-3-05. Anyone who cares to drop in is welcome to come and work or observe or start a camera if you care to. Hopefully the Revision C drawings will be completed and plotted by then.

Happy Holidays.

Barry Young
cameramaker.com

Dan's45 · Nov 29, 2005

hey guys,
what are the chances of trying to get together and work on plan to build a 5x7 field camera? let me know....these are days i have off: sun,mon & tues.
can reached by my cell no.-pm me for it as i don't want to give out over open channels if you don't mind please! i know everyone seems to like building view cameras....just this might more of a challenge....anyone up? i know there are a few of us here in the tacoma/seattle area who building. would like to contribute if i could...interested? what i have are very rough sketches, maybe someone can make something of them. i personally would like to build a field camera myself, but lack tools and experience building any type of camera. pm me for the number if interested...even if not would like to join next session and see how this all works. look forward to hearing you!
talk to you all later,
Dan/Sinar F1 user.
Tacoma, WA

barryjyoung · Dec 2, 2005

I am relatively just informed we will be meeting at my shop both Saturday and Sunday. Hopefully we have all the thickness planing done so we can keep the door closed. It is getting mighty chilly here. The snow probably is to blame.

Barry Young

Dan's45 · Dec 4, 2005

sounds about right......snow's still heavy around my house.

barryjyoung · Dec 5, 2005

Report of activity this weekend

Saturday John Austin came over and made his first focus knob on the lathe. It is hard to put the satisfaction one feels from making something from scratch. He was BEAMING!!! Sunday we received a new member for the first time. Eric Houser (spelling?). What a really nice guy Eric is. He will be a very valuable contributor I am sure. John finished his remaining three focus knobs. The revision B drawings for the 8x10 are complete and ready for distribution. The first set of Rev B was sent out to a fellow cameramaker in Oregon this afternoon. If I can get the stiffeners programmed we will be assembling the bellows this weekend. Everybody who wants to participate in the first bellows folding session should have their cover material from Porters and whatever THIN material they want to line their bellows with by next weekend. I use China Silk for lining mine, it is hard to find but superior. Any muslin or linen that is very thin and very black will work fine. Hope to see you next weekend.

Barry Young
cameramaker.com

Colin Graham · Dec 11, 2005

Everybody who wants to participate in the first bellows folding session should have their cover material from Porters -barryjyoung
Have you found a source for good bellows material?!? (Sorry, tried searching thread and could find no other reference.) Thanks

barryjyoung · Dec 12, 2005

Hi Colin:

Yes, porters camera store has lightproof bellows material here:

http://porters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PCS&Product_Code=221125&Product_Count=&Category_Code=

I use this on the outside with the uncoated side out and cover the inside with china silk found here:

Dead Link Removed

But you can line the inside with any lightweight dark colored muslin or linen or gluable synthetic fabric.

I use headliner cement and railroad board for stiffeners.

Hope that helps.

Barry Young

Colin Graham said:
Everybody who wants to participate in the first bellows folding session should have their cover material from Porters -barryjyoung
Have you found a source for good bellows material?!? (Sorry, tried searching thread and could find no other reference.) Thanks

Colin Graham · Dec 12, 2005

Wonderful! I've been looking for something like this forever. Thanks very much

barryjyoung · Dec 19, 2005

The shop will be open from Christmas to New Years (approximately) and I will be working toward finishing the 8x10 so I will finally have some pictures to show. Everyone is invited to drop in and either see what we are up to or start your own camera. email me at barryjyoung@yahoo.com if you need to know what parts you need to start or if you just need encouragement. Anybody can do this thing.

Weekend before last Schwinnparamount came and made another set of knobs and tried knurling for the first time. We will probably be doing the bellows making and spraying the laquer finish at his home in Tacoma.

No further news I spose.

photomc · Dec 20, 2005

Thanks for the updates Barry, it has been most interesting (and Fun) keeping up with the progress.

barryjyoung · Dec 20, 2005

My pleasure Mike

barryjyoung · Dec 27, 2005

Yesterday was a very very busy day around here. The shop was full of camera makers.

John and Andrew Austin were here and made the rest of the knobs for their cameras including the small knobs for the film and lens tilts and for the folding front standard.

Ben Hopson our new member made his first appearance and was able to make a brass tripod socket and mill all of the lumber for his baseboard, focus rails (including the grooves for the focus racks and channels) and milled all of the lumber for the front focus frame. Ben is a very fast and efficient worker and a very nice person.

I would have photos, but Deborah is in Ohio for the holidays and has my camera with her.

barryjyoung · Jan 4, 2006

The shop here in Edmonds will be open all day Saturday 1-7-05 for all who care to come. We will be doing lots of things I suspect. One builder needs to cut the pinion wells and focus shaft groove in his baseboard and make knobs. I need to make my small knobs for the back tilt, lensboard tilt and lens standard tilt. We all need to attach the focus rails to the baseboards. Hopefully we will have a partial day of instruction on sheet metal fabrication. We have done none of that as yet. It is time. Anyway, there is plenty to do and plenty to see, feel free to drop in (email me for the address at barryjyoung@yahoo.com).

Hope to see you here Saturday

Curt · Jan 4, 2006

Hi Barry, what kind of shop do you have? Is it woodworking or metalworking, or is it a woodworking shop with some metalworking tools? Also, what is your lathe size? I was going to get one to turn knobs with.

Thanks,
Curt from Everett

barryjyoung · Jan 4, 2006

Hi Curt:

Our shop here is tiny, it is a smaller than average one car garage. With some clever layout, I have been able to squeeze in a 9x20 Jet lathe, a minimill from Grizzly, a 14 inch Grizzly bandsaw with a riser so that we can resaw a 12 inch wide board, a 9 inch bandsaw, a tabletop drill press, a tabletop disk belt sander, 2 pedestal grinders one equipped with a slow speed wet well and polishing equipment, A Ryobi BT3100 table saw with sliding miter table and a DeWalt router mounted in one wing, Ryobi oscilating spindle sander, Delta 12 inch thickness planer, Rigid 6 inch jointuh, 2 scroll saws, a bunch of portable power tools, a roll away tool chest, a machinist top box and enough hand tools so that we can do anything with hand tools that we can do with power tools. This may seem like a lot to put into a smaller than average one car garage, but consider that before moving to this house in April, all of this stuff was in a bedroom in an apartment and it all ran except the table saw and thickness planer and jointuh which were too noisy. Now having a smaller than average one car garage to work in seems relatively roomy. We can usually have two or three guys working at the same time without too many "scuse me's".

I can highly recommend the Jet/Grizzly/Harbor Freight/Enco/Cummins 9x20/9x19/9x18 lathes, They can handle all of the operations required in cameramaking including the milling if you build a milling attachment. The lathes are all identical and the parts do interchange.

I can recommend the various 7x10 size mini lathes available from the same group by reputation only. I have not used them. I have looked at them up close in the store and they look limited but ok. The price is amazingly good, but not as good as the 9x20 which in my opinion is the best machine tool bargain ever.

Before you buy, you should check out our machining groups on Yahoo.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GrizHFMinimill/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Lathe9X20/?yguid=20166694

If you are leaning toward a mini lathe check out

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/7x10minilathe/?yguid=20166694

Hope this helps.

Curt · Jan 5, 2006

Thanks Barry, sounds like you are having a lot of fun. I have been to Grizzly in Bellingham and have the same bandsaw. I had the wheels trued up because the run out was so bad that the blade wouldn't track. I have had it for years now and it runs great. I have a Powermatic table saw and Shaper along with planers etc. I was going to make furniture when I retired. Then I hurt my back and now I have a cabinet shop for a hobby shop. I made a 4x5 clamshell camera years back and do repairs etc. and work on my house now. I am going to be building an 11x14 camera with my son for his senior project. I have a bellows and nice ground glass from Dave. It's not hard, just time consuming. I use DesignCad because I am much better at it than Autocad. I am also going to make some film holders for it. If I were to buy a half dozen from one of the custom makers I would have to sell my Jeep! The camera I made was in Cherry and brass, with the brass being cut and slotted by hand. I think that if someone is going into it they should just do the first one with the idea of having some fun. You learn quickly what works and what doesn't. The big temptation is to want to make all kinds of camera sizes. You can spend so much time making that you don't have time for the taking, of pictures that is.
The 7x17 you are working on sounds like a popular size. I was giving some thoughts to a 4x10. I also have a couple of Seneca's and Kodak's in 5x7 and 8x10.

Curt

barryjyoung · Jan 6, 2006

My pleasure Curt.

Camera Makers of Seattle Unite!

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