Repaired Seneca City View

[MikeK]

About 2 years ago I had a wicked accident with my first 8x10 camera; a Seneca City View made sometime between 1903 and 1925 and purchased it from an antique store in Burlington VT while on a business trip. Clumsy me, it fell off my work bench onto a concrete floor. The poor old thing exploded on impact. Regally upset I picked up the pieces and put them into a storage box. Last night I re-discovered the box, and with some clamps, wood glue, screw driver and some packing tape, managed to get put it together again.

The camera is functional, the bellows, while patched in a couple of places, are still light tight. I had to mount the lens board to the front standard using packing tape as I cannot find the original metal strip, with an 12" f6.3 Gundlach Anastigmat in a Betax No. 4 shutter. Not very pretty but she is ready to go, and i have a big smile on my face. Just need to find a good looking replacement metal strip to hold the lens board in place - any ideas?

I cannot find the rear extension bed, so limited to lenses of around 14" but that's not too bad. The camera still has the original ground glass and the image is very dim compared to the focussing screen of my 8x10 Tachihara.

I posted a copy of my "repairs" to the Technical Gallery.

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

and

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Mike

 

[Dave Parker]

Hey Mike,

Anything you can do to shoot, by the way, I can help you out on that 'Dim' Focus screen if you need, looking forward to seeing some shots taken with it.

Dave Parker

 

[celluloidpropaganda]

The metal parts all look brand new - did you have them refinished at any point or has time just been kind?

 

[MikeK]

The metal parts all look brand new - did you have them refinished at any point or has time just been kind?

It is a trick of the light - I did polish the nickel plated pieces and buffed with my dremel fabric polishing attachment, but unfortunatley many of these parts are quite badly pitted.

Mike

 

[BradS]

Mike, That's a beautiful rig. I can almost see your beaming smile from here. You could fashion a lens board retaining "thingy" out of flat brass stock. Wouldn't be too pretty but, it would work. Flat brass is available at most hobby stores and some hardware stores and is pretty easy to work with ordinary tools.