Looking for a new FP curtain for an Anniversary Graphic

[EASmithV]

Does anyone have/know of a place to get a new curtain? I've disassembled my anny before, but i'm not sure how successful I'd be at changing out the curtain. It shouldn't be too hard should it? I'm not really interested in cutting my own, as I have a feeling i'd totally muff something like that up, but if it needs to be done...

It might be easier if i could just get a curtain on the roller blinds and drop the whole thing in.

 

[Ian Grant]

How bad is the current curtain ?

I make my own curtains but started only after refurbishing the curtain in my pre-Anniversary about 4 years ago. I'm about to cut two smaller curtains tonoght but I've not enough material prepared for a Graphic curtain. I have the pattern somes]where I think as a PDF.

Let me know hoe you get on as I'll make fresh cloth in a couple of weeks.

Ian

 

[Sirius Glass]

Ask at graflex.org. There are a number of knowledgeable people who can help you with that.

Jon Koss, who is here, has the knowledge and cloth shutter material [or had it].

Since the shutters varied from camera to camera, even of the same model, you are better off using your old shutter as a template to make a new one.

Steve

 

[EASmithV]

My shutter was repaired at some point, but poorly, as the highest tension (the D slot) has been visibly taped back together, and is apparantly just short enough to not click anymore. Tensions A-C operate fine. The cloth itself looks very dry and brittle, but perhaps that is just the lightproofing flaking off. The curtain as it stands now is most definately not lightproof, I can see through it in places. I'd love a simple cheap fix, but i'm not sure there is one. I've been using it as a psuedo-field camera, and sticking with the leaf shutter... but I have barrel lenses i wanna use and the Anny shutter is much more versatile than the Pacemaker one.

 

[BrianShaw]

Since the shutters varied from camera to camera, even of the same model, you are better off using your old shutter as a template to make a new one.

Siriusly? I would have thought they were fairly standard within models, if not between models.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Siriusly? I would have thought they were fairly standard within models, if not between models.

At www.graflex.com both Bert and 45PSS recommend that. Bert retired from Graflex Graphic after 26 years as a repairman. Bert is the go-to-guy for advice in the Graflex and Graphic area.

I bought both cameras from Bert's personal collection.

Steve

 

[Ian Grant]

Re-light proofing the curtain is relatively easy, just go and buy some acrylic black paint, prefereably matt, lamp black. Then work this into the shutter curtain, you have to get this paint into the cloth itself , do this on both side then wipe of the excess, this is important to keep the flexibility.

This works with even quite bad shutter fabric where I've had to strip of flaky light proofing, it's quick and very inexpensive.

I've done this to a pre-Anniversary shuuter cloth in situ by doing a section at a time with just the back removed.

These days I find it's simpler to just replace the curtains when I restore shutters. If you can give me the measurements I'd make you a new curtain, but I can't do that until I make my new batch of shutter cloth (or my wife brings my existing cloth back from Turkey). I will look up my Graflex pattern as well and you can see if it'll fit.

Ian

 

[Sirius Glass]

Ask at graflex.org. There are a number of knowledgeable people who can help you with that.

Jon Koss, who is here, has the knowledge and cloth shutter material [or had it].

Since the shutters varied from camera to camera, even of the same model, you are better off using your old shutter as a template to make a new one.

Steve

Siriusly? I would have thought they were fairly standard within models, if not between models.

At www.graflex.com both Bert and 45PSS recommend that. Bert retired from Graflex Graphic after 26 years as a repairman. Bert is the go-to-guy for advice in the Graflex and Graphic area.

I bought both cameras from Bert's personal collection.

Steve

From Bert

......when I came up with my "how to fab a new curtain", I found that no 2 curtains (even from the same model camera) ever had the same exact positioning of the slots....so in my instructions, I always advised that the old curtain be used to duplicate a new one with the same spacings! Makes the initial adjustment of the tension easier to set!

Thickness of material is also important, >>as the material rolls over itself between rollers, determines where the slot will be with one turn of the crank...thicker material would shorten the distance and thinner material would move the slot farther away.......and it will progressively (grow/shrink/ advance with each slot!

Only 2 thicknesses ever offered that I ever found were........>.008" and .013".....>>.008 being the only one offered these days (my latest source)! A long and complicated explanation...sorry!

Again, Bert is the go-to-man for do it yourself on this unless you want to spend much more money and send your camera to Fred Lusting at

FRED LUSTIG
4790 CAUGHLIN PKWAY #433
RENO, NV. 89509

phone (775)746-0111
(Pacific Time Z, daytime only)​

 

[Ian Grant]

Actually Steve that no two shutter curtains are quite the same is common with other old cameras.

I work mainly with Thornton Pickard shutters which were the wvry first of the roller blind shutters. While curtains vary what's important in practice is how the blinds sit when tensioned and released. There's actually quite a tolerance so the exact position of the slit doesn't need great accuracy, all that matters is the shutter is cloesd when tensioned, opens when fired and closes after the exposure.

Yes thickness & also flexibility of the material is important, that's why I stress when renovating with acrylics the paint is worked into the fabric, excess wiped off. The original shutter cloths in my TP shutters Speed Graphics are very close to the cloth I make myself, althogh sometimes original curtains have been re-light proofed and then get flaky and crack.

It's not rocket science (not a dig Steve) I just mean it's not very critical. I've now restored more than 50 roller blind shutters and they now all get new curtains because it's more reliable and easier.

Ian

 

[Ian Grant]

I've found my Pacemaker Speed Graphic pattern, so I'll see if I can compare to a (my) Pre-Anniversary curtain. I can match the thickness

Ian