Restoring a Thornton Pickard Junior Special Ruby Reflex

[Ian Grant]

(there was a url link here which no longer exists) I mentioned I was going down the Reflex route, it's part of the learning curve in camera restoration.

The camera arrived yesterday and after photographing it this afternoon restoration has begun. I knew from the outset that the shutter was broken, there was no focus screen, lens/lens board, and the front silvered mirror was useless. In addition the focus hood is coming apart.

The camera had been poorly stored and the covering had become damp at some stage, once dried out it was starting to flake off so I made thedecision to recover the camera with similar style Morroccan grain Arbitex leather. There was evidence of a crack in the wood of the body so removing the covering woulsd make this easier to repair.



The camera and the front silvered mirror.

Taking the camera apart turned out to be relatively straight forward and I now have the shutter module out, intact. Steve (steven_e007) gave me some hints, as did Tomosy's book on Camera restoration but unfortunately my camera differed in the position of the hidden screws

With the shutter out I dampened the covering on the body and scraped it off, I found two ther significant cracks in the woodwork but they will be easy to repair. There's also a crack in the frame of the shutter this would probably not be an issue but a drop or two of Super glue and it's fixed.

The body-shell. The third atached photo shows the most significan crack, this was through the covering as well. Tomorrow I'l fetch my clamps and repair the cracks in the woodwork, then I'll repaint the interior of the camera and the shutter module with matt black acrylic.

Then the harder part re-building the shutter, first I've got to figure out how it works.

I've worked on a few Graflex shutters but they are quite crude in comparision as they have just one shutter blind and depend on coice of slit & tension, a bit like a Thornton Pickard roller blind shutter except 4 slit widths instead of one. British (and European) reflex camera shutters (and other focal pane shutters) use two blinds and your shutter speed dial adjusts the slit width.

Fun for tomorrow . . . . . .

Ian

 

[Ian Grant]

Unfortunately the damage to the mirrox box was more severe than it first appeared, it is repairable however.



All the significant damage is to the top right hand corner of the rear of the camera indicating that it must have been dropped at sometime.

Ian

 

[2bits]

What a neat project!! Can't wait to see it finished, or more pics along the way.
Thanks for sharing
2bits

 

[Ian Grant]

The restoration has had a slight hiatus. The mirror box is now re-glued and rigid again but I'm waiting for (there was a url link here which no longer exists) (first/front surface) to arrive from Vacuum Coatings Ltd (Scientific Mirrors) and until that arrives I can't really begin to re-assemble the shutter or fit the new shutter curtains.



I have cleaned the shutter control mechanism, it was tight and difficult to move so needed a good soaking with WD40, then I washed it well finally making sure there was no trace left of the WD40 using methylated spirits.


The new Moroccan grain Arbitex leather (bookbinders cloth based material) arrived yesterday and I've recovered the hood, front standard and a small side panel so far. The body itself can't be re-covered until the shutter's been re-installed because there's an aluminium plate on the bottom of the camera that has to be removed.

Ian

 

[steven_e007]

Hi Ian,

It is amazing how different your camera is to mine, considering they are supposed to be the same model - or at least have the same name. As far as I know 'Ruby' refers to the shutter - which appears to be the same - and I thought 'Junior' was the size and 'Special' was the model? Maybe it is like the menu in Greek restaurants I went to once - everything was a 'special'

I've spotted two on ebbbeeeegeeebay, one which looks the same as your camera and one more like mine. I think these reflex cameras were produced for many years and I suppose there may well have been more than two versions, even with the 'Ruby' shutter? I'm pretty sure my model is the same as one in an advert I have from 1927.

I had to chuckle about the hidden screws. I suppose there's no point in hiding them if they always hide them in the same place!
Unlike your camera mine has no metal insert inside the wooden box (your camera seems to have a 'mirror chamber' - if that is a good name for it?). One advantage for me in this arrangement was that I could work on the shutter without fitting the mirror. I was able to slip it in and out of the mounting rails fairly easily with the camera assembled and so I actually left it out most of the time so as not to damage it.

I also had a new mirror made by Scientific coatings a few weeks ago... they only charged me £15 for mine, though

 

[Ian Grant]

Hi Steve

The Ruby name isn't to do with the shutter as TP made various Ruby field camera, and Ruby enlargers as well. They did make a Ruby with a focal plane shutter that's rather like a Speed Graphic.

I've now found 7 variations of these Ruby Reflex cameras in adverts all but the early pre-WWI backed up by cameras on Ebay (there may be more) and I now think mine ws possibly made womewhere between 1921 and 1924. There's a pattern to the changes. One advert states the Ruby Relex has a new improved shutter. They were also sold under the Salex & Zodel brand names

This evening I had a good play with the shutter mechanism and it should run very smoothly now, when it came it was almost solid. I've written my name and the date of restoration on the mirror box in pencil below an original TP pencilled number.

I guess it's time to make the new shutter curtains, I've just bought two more TP roller blind shutters, and have a couple of others to restore from Europe and South America, so a it makes sense to make them all at the same . If you want a set FOC let me have the dimensions (only widths are critical).

I'd love to find a trashed Ruby Reflex camera and just have a working shutter/mirror box on display, they are remarkable technology for something desinged over a century ago.

Restoring this old reflex camera is a remarkable and interesting learning curve, if I can get some help (the wifes away abroad) I'll video how the shutter works before I re-install it.

Ian

 

[steven_e007]

Hi Ian,

I got the impression the Shutter was a 'Ruby' shutter from the earlyphotography website:

http://www.earlyphotography.co.uk/site/shutterm.html

They give the impression the early TP focal plane shutter was the 'Unit' and the later design the 'Ruby'. Doesn't mean they're right, of course. I wonder if it is like Ford cars? 'Zetec' started out as a type of engine, today it refers to the trim level, regardless of what engine you have... And how many Ford Escorts have there been, which look nothing like each other and have no interchangeable parts? I think once a manufacturer has registered some brand names and got them known, they like to recycle

Anyway, if you haven't seen the site have a look. It is a good site with some close ups of shutter mechanisms.

Your wife is away abroad? Oh, luxury! No wonder you can make so much progress so quickly! Now, I am jealous. Do you think she would take mine with her?

I'll PM you about shutter cloth.

 

[Ian Grant]

I've used the earlyphotography site quite a bit to identify cameras but on this occasion he's got it wrong. The Unit shutter was available at the same time as the shutters in the Ruby Reflex and in fact was improved with the introduction of "The Thornton-Pickard New 1910 Patent Unit Focal Plane Camera Sets".

Many of their cameras could be supplied with this new Unit shuttter fitted including the Royal Ruby, Special Ruby etc but these weren't Relex cameras. The older Unit shutters had adjustable tension, like the T&I and used the same ratchet shutter speed indicator (as my Avatar), so needed two adjustments one to wind and re-tension the shutter, the other to adjust the tension to change the spped. The 1910 Unit shutter is similar to our Ruby Relex cameras, one winding key, they still used the key in 1921 but by 1924 it was a radio style knob.

So in 1910 there's also the new Ruby Reflex with the newer "Unit shutter".


The camera still looks the same in a 1921 advert. So I guess what the site owner calls the Ruby shutter is just in fact the newer type of Unit shutter.

Ian

 

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

Ian,

One of the best looking camera I have ever seen. What about the lens , was there a lens fitted to the camera when you bought it ? If not, do you have an original that era lenses at your hand , I think fitting a modern schneider would kill the camera but what is your opinion ?

Umut

 

[Ian Grant]

I haven't found the right lens for the camera yet Umut, but then I've not really looked hard either. I will fit a British 6" lens in a sunken mount though which is what it would had originally.

It does appear that TP started calling the Unit shutters Ruby shutters by the mid 1920's.

Ian

 

[steven_e007]

I've used the earlyphotography site quite a bit to identify cameras but on this occasion he's got it wrong. The Unit shutter was available at the same time as the shutters in the Ruby Reflex and in fact was improved with the introduction of "The Thornton-Pickard New 1910 Patent Unit Focal Plane Camera Sets".

Many of their cameras could be supplied with this new Unit shuttter fitted including the Royal Ruby, Special Ruby etc but these weren't Relex cameras. The older Unit shutters had adjustable tension, like the T&I and used the same ratchet shutter speed indicator (as my Avatar), so needed two adjustments one to wind and re-tension the shutter, the other to adjust the tension to change the spped. The 1910 Unit shutter is similar to our Ruby Relex cameras, one winding key, they still used the key in 1921 but by 1924 it was a radio style knob.

So in 1910 there's also the new Ruby Reflex with the newer "Unit shutter".

View attachment 52448
The camera still looks the same in a 1921 advert. So I guess what the site owner calls the Ruby shutter is just in fact the newer type of Unit shutter.

Ian

My head is now spinning

Didn't you say yours was a quarter plate?

Mine is a 3 1/2 by 2 1/2. That might explain some of the differences. That also means neither 'special' nor 'Junior' refers to the plate size. I'm beginning to think they just strung as many brand names together as they owned the rights to and stuck them on the name plate... :confused:

My camera came with a really nice Taylor Hobson Cooke Anastigmat 5" lens, which is not in a sunken panel. I've also got a Carl Zeiss Jena 15cm Tessar which is a nice fit.

 

[Grytpype]

I'll follow your progress with great interest, Ian. Looks a great project!

I have my grandfather's Thornton Pickard 'Special Ruby'. It's 3½" x 2½" (1/6 plate?), so possibly like the other Steve's model. It has a Ross Xpress 5½" f4.5.

It needs curtains and a CLA, which I really must get round to some time soon.

Steve.

 

[steven_e007]

Hi Grytpype,

You a Thornton Pickard man as well, then? Obviously we share good taste in cameras

There is currently an 85 mm aigmatic lens for sale on eBeeGeebay, don't know if that would interest you?

Search for agimatic.

 

[Grytpype]

Thanks, Steve.

I hadn't spotted that one. Not often they appear separately from the camera.

Steve.

 

[Kylefornia]

Sorry to bring this back from the dead, but did you by chance happen to finish this restoration or have any other updates? I've got the same camera with a beautiful 14 aperture blade 6" f/3 Aldis Anastigmat which seems unusually fast for the era and format. My plan is to put a polaroid back on it and make it a dedicated Polaroid SLR since it's exactly the right size for peel apart and infinitely lighter than the Graflex Super D I've been using for the same purpose.

 

[Eric Rose]

Thanks for sharing this adventure with us!

 

[Ian Grant]

Sorry to bring this back from the dead, but did you by chance happen to finish this restoration or have any other updates? I've got the same camera with a beautiful 14 aperture blade 6" f/3 Aldis Anastigmat which seems unusually fast for the era and format. My plan is to put a polaroid back on it and make it a dedicated Polaroid SLR since it's exactly the right size for peel apart and infinitely lighter than the Graflex Super D I've been using for the same purpose.

The camera got stuck in the restorations queue, all the body parts have been recovered, the shutter re-built, a new hood made, essentially it just needs to be put back together. I lost impetus while caring for my mother, and had to put it to one side. I've misplaced some parts when moving house I had to do quite a bit of building work taking wallss and a fireplace out, they aren't lost though and aren't critical. I've 2 or 3 other TP Ruby Reflex cameras including one that's in great shape and fully functional that's probably why I've been neglecting finishing the first.

I've other SLRs that also need restoration apart from the Ruby reflexes, a Quarter Plate Dallmeyer Press, actually a re-badged Ensign reflex with a fast Dallmeyer Press 6" f3.5 lens this is very light compared to the Thornton Pickards. A 5x4 Marion & Co Soho Reflex, this has front movements and in many ways would be the most useful - it has an 8" f4.5 Cooke Series II lens. Then there's a post-card sized Graflex Compact reflex which I can adapt easily to take modern film holders, I'll use modern 9x12 DDS (film holders) as they are the same outside dimensions as 5x4 DDS but a closer fit to the camera's format.

However these SLR restorations (of my own) have to fit alongside restoration of other wood & brass cameras and shutters, and more importantly work I do for others which get priority. This is one restoration from 2015.

Hopefully I might get the TP Ruby reflex finished this Winter, and I'll post pictures.

Ian