First time builder - design questions

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Bruce Appel

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I have finally decided to get off my booty and build a camera. Nothing fancy, just a simple monorail 4X5, like lots of others. I made a bellows, thinking that looked like the hardest part. I have good woodworking skills, a full shop, lots of various hardwoods.
Anyway, a few questions.
Question 1- On some of the simpler designs I see, the front rise/fall and tilt are all done with one control. While this looks real simple, it also looks like it could be a pain in use. Should I seperate the rise/fall and tilt control? Is it worth the extra bulk?
Question 2- Some of the designs I see do not have rise and fall on the back, just tilt. I haver used a camera with rise and fall at the rear. Is it something I should include or not?
 

Robert Hall

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If you are building a monorail, you could build 2 identical sides (more or less) giving rise/fall to both front and rear standard and a square bellows.

I use front rise quite often, but wouldn't use rear.

To me the hard part is getting the ground glass in the same plane as the film.

Good luck!
 

Eric Mac

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Oct 16, 2004
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Diy 4x5

Robert is right. With decent woodworking skills, you can build a usable monorail. The trick is to get the back built properly. I took a graflock back off an old press camera and used that.

I built an Aletta camera, which had some issues. A picture is somewhere on the site.

Good luck

Eric
 

nick mulder

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is back rise/fall required ? no... but I just put it on mine as I wanted some more time on the milling machine for practice (; pix in the pix thread sticky ...
 

argus

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Bruce Appel said:
Question 1- On some of the simpler designs I see, the front rise/fall and tilt are all done with one control. While this looks real simple, it also looks like it could be a pain in use. Should I seperate the rise/fall and tilt control? Is it worth the extra bulk?

It is a pain to use. I had them paired in my first camera, the latest model features separated rise/fall and tilt mechanisms.

Alike Nick M., I don't ever use the back rise/fall. If you build the back standard high enough above the rail, front rise/fall will compensate your needs.

Pics in the sticky thread.

G
 
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