My New Super Graphic Invention

F4U

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In the past couple weeks I've been giving my nice Super Graphic (not Super Speed) a good going over. It's done as of today and everything is perfect. This battery holder was a piece of work. Took me several days and a number of 3D prototypes to get it right. I wanted the red shutter trip button to work and didn't want to be dependent on ordering the special 22 1/2 volt batteries off the internet. I can snag these little 12V batteries locally at any store. I think they're called #23, not sure. So I whipped up this battery box to fit in the place where the two 22 1/2 volt batteries go. Naturally it required a stripdown of the camera to replace the storage capacitors with new ones, lest the batteries go dead because of old leaky capacitors. These batteries will last 3 years, because I already made a battery holder out of model airplane wood 3 or 4 years ago. But back then I had to solder the batteries together and fashion them to fit in that small place in the camera. But I don't care for spending a day soldering up new battery packs. With my new handy-dandy 3D battery pack I can pop in fresh batteries in a minute.
Learning Freecad and buying that Ender 3 was one of my smarter ideas. Here it is: BTW, The package of fasteners served as my battery contacts.
 

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koraks

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Very tidy! Print quality looks excellent. The diameter on those fasteners looks larger than the ones I'm familiar with; these look like half inch (approx) heads? Did they solder well?
 

RalphLambrecht

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looks like a great job! If I had a 3D printer, I would never get any sleep because of all the tinkering I could do.
 

Donald Qualls

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F4U

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I've received a request to sell a box. I didn't post it here to sell anything, but am willing to give away my Freead files. Although I don't reommend it yet, as I'm not quite happy. After a half dozen prototypes I got something I can use, but ended up having to fold up little pieces of tin foil to get better contact between the battery ends and the brass buttons. Yes, the brass soldered very easily, with the use of flux. My problem is that the partitioned insert is too thin and flimsy due to my choice of the brass fasteners. Small strips of thin spring steel would have been so much better, but I don't know where to get any, nor a way to cut them. But if I did have some, I could have designed the partitioned insert more substantial. The whole thing is so small it took a good bit of custom fitting just to fit anything inside the box and be able to put the outer door back on the camera. I can tell you that of the box is even .1mm longer from front to back, the little Graflex door is NOT going to go on. Frankly the brass fasteners were not the best idea, I might have come up with, but it did work out in the end. Other than the box itself, which is important, I'd feel so much better if somebody had a better idea than the brass fasteners, so I could re-design the partitioned insert. I studied this Freecad for 2 years, and it is not for the meek. Another problem is that the brass fasteners are a bigger diameter than the batteries, so I had to grind flat sides on them to fit between the partitions. Better ideas WELCOMED.
 
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F4U

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As an aside, plan your printing starts so you can be sure the first layers lay down and you can go to bed. But only with PLA. If you use ABS or other curly junk that doesn't stick to the print bed, you will probably wake up to a bg wad of filament and/or a ruined printer.
 

ic-racer

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That is really nice!

My Horseman takes 22v batteries. I still have a couple left.

I recently discoverd my local library will 3d print for only the cost of the materials so I have been doing more 3d printing lately.
 
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F4U

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I got my Ender 3 as an "open box-new" off the auction site. I've used the heck out of it. It's the original one, not V2 or later. Anyway, as an aside, the original capaitors MUST be replaed, as they are your "switch" .If they are old and leaky, your batteries will draw down dead in no time. To do tihs you practically have to disassemble the camera, but the viewfinder probably needs cleaning anyway. In my case, my Super was an early model, whih makes stripdown particularly difficult. There's plenty of room for new caps. In my case I used ones I buy from Mouser and Digikey for rebuilding vintage eletronic gear. So far, the batteries seem to hold up fine, but I wish I had ordered extra special low leakage caps for even better battery life. As an aside I am thinking of designing and printing a duplicate Graflex battery ompartment cover, with a hole to lead some wires out. I've thought of designing a new viewfinder mounting plate that's a bit thicker, where I can design an attached box to put a small slide switch in it to completely break the circuit when the camera is not in use. But for right now, I'm pretty happy with my new battery box, considering this old contraption I originally soldered up several years ago. Soldering up battery packs is no fun. One other thing. The other day when the red shutter button quit working, this old soldered-up pack was reading 16V. So apparently the 45V they designed it for can work till the batteries die down a LOT. Yep, al in all this new box is the cat's pajamas.
 

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Sirius Glass

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Welcome to Photrio!

Nice work and thank you for sharing it with us. I hope to see more ideas coming from you.
 

juan

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I leave the cover off of my cameras to eliminate the battery drawdown. We had a discussion here a few years ago about printing new doors and @shutterfinger posted the measurements. I thought about doing it but couldn't find a source for the spring brass needed - though I didn't search widely.
 

choiliefan

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ic-racer said:
That is really nice!

My Horseman takes 22v batteries. I still have a couple left.

I recently discoverd my local library will 3d print for only the cost of the materials so I have been doing more 3d printing lately.
Click to expand...

None my local libraries here in NC have 3d printers. When I asked about books on 3d printing, librarian informed me, there are none available. He and I, both were astonished.
 

Truzi

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I pull the batteries when not in use. I also suspect the newer 22v ones are just filled with a bunch of button cells, so one day I may empty a spent battery and see if I can make a button-cell-holder out of it, lol.

Another idea I had was some sort of switching mechanism built into the door/cover - that way I could just leave it in place. A new cover would be create so as to not ruin an existing one. There isn't much space, though.

My ultimate idea isn't a micro-switch as much as a solid-state circuit with a membrane switch - press to turn on, press to turn off. A simple shutoff timer would be nice too. Then, of course, I'd want an LED to let me know when the power is on, etc..... and all this means I'll probably never get around to doing it.
 
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F4U

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A switch isn't really neessary; I've proven that to my surprise. the first set I soldered up 4 years ago lasted till this week.Of ourse I really never used the camera much. But replacing the original capacitors is a must. And I just used the same cheap Mouser radial caps I put in the circuit boards of my R to R tape decks. These cameras were made for news men who actually used up the batteries and replaced them every month. You know your biggest worry? Folding up the camera. Graflex used strips of metal ribbon built into the bellows. It's a wonder metal fatigue didn't take them out ages ago. They should have run wires with gentle curves UNDER the bellows. I don't like the fat that a 2-pack of piddly little 12V batteries is now $10, when it was $6 four years ago. But I also don't like what a bottle of orange juice, eggs, or a box of cereal costs either. So I shoot x ray film I cut down from 8xa0 and develop in Rodinal 1:100 Not ideal, but thrifty. A determined photographer will always find a way.
 

blee1996

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You use the glue stick trick? So far it seems to work well for PLA and PETG, as long as the bed is calibrated level.
 
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F4U

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blee1996 said:
You use the glue stick trick? So far it seems to work well for PLA and PETG, as long as the bed is calibrated level.
Click to expand...
I've tried all that. As long as you scrub your bed with comet and a brush every once in a while, PLA will stick TOO well without any glue or hair spray. That dadgum ABS can't be made to stick if you used a nail gun. They say to put the printer in an enclosure, but I'm too afraid to do that and end up with a ruined printer beause it baked itself. So I just use PLA. Works great, so long as you don't leave your item in the car in July. (ask me how I know)
 
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F4U

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After a few days on here I've managed to solve most of my problems concerning posting of stl 3D print files. Here is my revised final file that should work out well, straight off the printer. Since this little invention uses notebook binder thingies at both ends of the batteries, there is no spring at one end. It relies on perfect fit of the battery. Look carefully at the photo of my battery holder in the opening post.. You will notice I used 2 thickness of paper shim behind the buttons on one end. I have since revised the Freead file to move the contacts closer together by that much thickness. I am confident that after you do your soldering and assembly, it will work just fine. I can attest I'm happy with mine. Here is the revised stl file. I suggest a 90% iinfil. NO SUPPORT. I am not posting a gcode because different people have different printers. I'd hate for my gcode making your printer try to print off the edge of the bed. There is no copyright. You're free to share. The box and partitions print separately.
 

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mshchem

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Well done!
 

MattKing

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At the request of @F4U I have added a note referencing the post #16 where users can access the downloadable files to the first post in the thread.
 
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