I've been threatening to post pictures of my homemade pin register carrier, what with all this talk of Ilfochrome masking I'm going to make good on it now. I built this from instructions by Dennis McNutt that used to be on the web but have now been wiped clean. It was also published in a magazine, search the archives here if you are interested as I've posted the details previously. I dont have the instruction, but I do have the results, Mine was rather quickly and shabbily constructed, I'm sure 99% of you could do better. I only used it several times for Ilfochrome masking, but it worked fine. I've searched my porous memory for the reasons for the pins on the negative stage too, and I'm sure there is an excellent reason but I dont remember it. Kick me a couple times and I'm sure it'll come back.
Anyway here is it. Its simply 2 pieces of glass, masked off for the film size (4x5 in my case). I used what I had laying around-construction paper and black tape- which as you can see is peeling off (its been sitting in a box in the attic for 7 years). The photo shows, clockwise from lower left the upper glass of the carrier, a (not very good) mask of 5x7 film showing the punch holes, a transparency with a strip of punched film taped to the edge, the tophat pins (even the size) from American Circuit Technology, PA, and the lower half of the carrier with pins shoved through another strip of film and attached to the glass by double sided tape. How this works should be fairly obvious but if you have any questions I'll prod my memory.
The other pic shows a similar arrangement of pins on the negative stage, thats the part I dont remember the why of but I'm sure it'll be obvious to someone else. Like I said I only used it a few times. It works and costs a few dollars for glass, pins, and a two hole punch. Or you can spend a few hundred and buy one from Radeka. .
Anyway here is it. Its simply 2 pieces of glass, masked off for the film size (4x5 in my case). I used what I had laying around-construction paper and black tape- which as you can see is peeling off (its been sitting in a box in the attic for 7 years). The photo shows, clockwise from lower left the upper glass of the carrier, a (not very good) mask of 5x7 film showing the punch holes, a transparency with a strip of punched film taped to the edge, the tophat pins (even the size) from American Circuit Technology, PA, and the lower half of the carrier with pins shoved through another strip of film and attached to the glass by double sided tape. How this works should be fairly obvious but if you have any questions I'll prod my memory.
The other pic shows a similar arrangement of pins on the negative stage, thats the part I dont remember the why of but I'm sure it'll be obvious to someone else. Like I said I only used it a few times. It works and costs a few dollars for glass, pins, and a two hole punch. Or you can spend a few hundred and buy one from Radeka. .

