I need a plastic Hasselblad hood cut down - anyone?

david b · Oct 17, 2008

I love my 60mm Hasselblad lens but have always found the plastic hood to be a bit of a joke, especially since it is made for the 38mm SWC camera.

So I bought another hood for the 80mm lens and would like to cut it down to properly shade the 60mm lens.

Any ideas how to cut this so that it looks correct and the plastic won't crack?

Can anyone do it?

ic-racer · Oct 17, 2008

The 50mm Hood I have looks like this. If I were doing this I would use a small 'coping saw' to cut your 80mm to shape. I would use a fine toothed saw like this:

bdial · Oct 17, 2008

X-acto sells a small miter box that would be helpful for guiding saws such as the one that ic-racer illustrates. If you use such a saw with a very fine blade and a light touch, you probably will not crack the plastic. After doing the cut sand all four sides at once by mounting some sandpaper on a piece of glass or other smooth, flat surface to clean up the saw cuts and get it all even.

Cutting a profile like his Rollei hood would be fairly difficult though. A true coping saw maybe could do it, but most coping saw blades are pretty coarse, the risk of cracking the plastic would be substantial. A router in a router table with a really fine cutter would be a good way, but it would also be a good way to turn the hood into scrap instantly, and perhaps your fingers too.
What sort of tools do you have available? You could easily spend more in tooling than the cost of the hood.
Of course no project is worthwhile unless it provides an excuse to buy more tools.

Q.G. · Oct 17, 2008

Mark where to cut (leaving the hood a bit too long still), and score a line on each side with a sharp, sturdy knife (X-Acto) along a metal ruler.
Run the knife along the ruler several times until the groove cut this way is deep enough to guide the knife, without further needing the ruler.

Then keep on gouging the plastic, running the knife along the groove until you are all the way through.

It will take some time. And it will not be the easiest thing to get the rounded corners right, and have the grooves meet there perfectly.
But you will end up with a good, straight hood.

After that, sand (or use a fine file) the thing down to the proper size. In the process of doing so you can correct small mistakes.

I have done so with a couple of hoods, and though not as nicely finished as a factory made hood, the result is not bad at all.
Most of all, it works.

Andrew Moxom · Oct 17, 2008

David, save the trouble and get one of the knockoffs online for the Blad B60 mount... I am assuming that's what you have? They make them for the 60mm lens.. A 50mm version would work too. As the 60 is not as wide.

Q.G. · Oct 17, 2008

I have seen those. In fact i have butchered one of those too.
Are you sure they make them for a 60 mm lens?
All i have seen were for a bayonet 60 mount, but in that mount only copies of the same lengths the originals come in.

Lousy things: poor fit, and bad material. But the latter made them easier to cut down than the original ones.
But they are good enough, and most of all cheap enough, to experiment with. And once they are cut to the right length, and once they are mounted on the lens (which can be rather tricky: not so nice if you need to remove and reattach the hood often), they work as well as any original one.

David A. Goldfarb · Oct 17, 2008

ic-racer said:
The 50mm Hood I have looks like this. If I were doing this I would use a small 'coping saw' to cut your 80mm to shape. I would use a fine toothed saw like this:

That type of saw is called a "jeweler's saw."

A coping saw is a handsaw with a fine blade stretched in a frame for cutting curlicues, scrolls, jigsaw puzzles, and such--

david b · Oct 17, 2008

thanks everyone. I have a Hasselblad B60 hood for the 80mm lens, not a knock off.

I will see what I can come up with a report back.

Again, many thanks.

Q.G. · Oct 17, 2008

By the way, in case you don't know already: the 80 mm hood needs to be shortened by 15.5 mm for use with the 60 mm lens. (17 mm for the 50 mm non-FLE lens).

david b · Oct 17, 2008

QG,
thanks for letting me know.

I have a 50mm CFi with the proper hood so I am set for that lens.

John Koehrer · Oct 18, 2008

David,
The first saw is a "razor saw" the second is a coping saw. A jewelers saw is similar to the coping saw but takes a much finer blade & is slightly shorter( about 3" high).

david b · Oct 18, 2008

where does one buy a jewelers saw?

Andrew Moxom · Oct 18, 2008

David, Hobbytown sells these types of saws for model makers.

david b · Oct 19, 2008

I had my 80mm hood cut down yesterday and it looks great. I took 16mm off of it. I will post a picture tomorrow.

Thanks for all the help.

ic-racer · Oct 20, 2008

David A. Goldfarb said:
That type of saw is called a "jeweler's saw."

A coping saw is a handsaw with a fine blade stretched in a frame for cutting curlicues, scrolls, jigsaw puzzles, and such--

Thats right, not a coping saw . The one I actually have was sold for notching a guitar nut, though no one would know what I meant if I said 'nut saw.'

Lee L · Oct 20, 2008

ic-racer said:
The one I actually have was sold for notching a guitar nut, though no one would know what I meant if I said 'nut saw.'

Especially if they thought you were a surgeon...

Lee

I need a plastic Hasselblad hood cut down - anyone?

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