I recently bought a number of older wooden 8x10 film holders, some of which were missing the wire handle used to pull the slide out of the holder. The holders were usable without the handle but for my own convenience I wanted something easier to pull on. I went down to my local hardware store and bought a length of 1/16" steel wire and a package of plastic wall hanger inserts. Darn, wish I had a photo. Anyway, the kind of knurled plastic tube where you punch a hole in a pasterboard wall, stick the hanger insert into the hole, then screw a screw into the insert. The screw makes the plastic insert expand and (hopefully) prevents the wall from crumbling and the screw from falling out.
There are several type of these plastic inserts; the ones I bought were just thin tubes with ribbing on the outside. I stuck the wire into the top of the metal folm holder darkslides and pushed until it came out the center hole where the original wire handles used to be, slipped one of the plastic insert things over the wire, then continued pushing the wire into the opposite side of the film holder darkslide's handle. After cutting off the bit of wire sticking out, I have a usable handle on the dark slide. If you are interested I'll take a couple of pictures tonight and post them. It isn't perfect but it is a workable handle, and dirt cheap, too!
Mike
