Shutter for Wollensak 190mm ƒ4.5 Raptar

[Katmandaddy]

Yes I know. I've been cautioned and chastised in other groups but I want to build an instant camera to use my stockpiled Fuji 100 utilizing the body of an old broken Polaroid Big Shot and my (currently barrel mounted) Wollensak 190mm Raptar ƒ4.5 lens. I have mocked it up with blue tape and it works wonderfully and incorporates the focusing two step with the camera's built in viewfinder. I DO NOT want to buy a different, or better, or smaller lens. I'd like to use pieces I already have.
But I do need a shutter. I have been told its a Alphax No. 3, and also a No. 4 but even with the catalog posted by Camera Eccentric and info at lensn2shutter.com I really can't tell. I don't want to drop a bunch of money on something that won't fit. I really don't want to drop a bunch of money at all. The outside of the mounting threads measure 2 3/16 inches with my H. Freight plastic calipers.
Could someone help me and share your wealth of experience by telling me if there is a shutter, of any age, I can drop the lens elements into with out any hassle. Or, barring that, with minimal hassle - and what precisely that hassle might be.
Yes it will be big and awkward but that is kind of the point for this fun project and I've already built a tripod mount onto the long snoot.
I have searched threads and found bits and pieces of info, but nothing definitive. BTW, I posted to Camera Building forum too.
Thanks for any help you can give, Peter

 

[Ian Grant]

I have a 6½" Raptar and that is in an Alphax #3, the threads are about 1¾", so your cells definitely won't fit an Alphax/Betax #3. I might have a an Alphax #4 upstairs but won't have time to check the dimensions until the hound has had his walk (It gets dark here quite soon in the UK).

Ian

 

[Dan Fromm]

Wollensak offered the lens in Alphax, size not specified. See http://www.cameraeccentric.com/html/info/wollensak_3.html

See http://www.suaudeau.eu/memo/pratique/Les_obturateurs_centraux.html for dimensions of Alphax #3 and #4.

As I said, Wollensak offered the lens in shutter. Not front-mounted. To find out which size of Alphax the cells will fit you'll have to unscrew a cell from the barrel and measure its threads.

 

[Ian Grant]

The wollensak catalogue 1957 states the 6½" Raptar comes in a no 4 Barrel or a Raptar or Alphax #3 shutter, and that the 7½" (190mm) comes in a no 5 barrel or an Alphax #3 shutter. (See Cameraeceentric).

I have 5 or 6 (maybe more) Alphax #3 shutters some have (or had) chrome bits to extend the tube length and that maybe why the 6½" and 7½" Raptars were sold in different sized barrels but both in Alphax #3 shutters, you'd need the right Alphax #3 shutter with the extension bits most likely, the threads aren't always the same. You need to find someone who has one in a shutter.

Ian

 

[Katmandaddy]

Correction on thread size. the threads screwing into the barrel are 2 3/32. The diameter stated above is incorrect.

 

[Dan Fromm]

Correction on thread size. the threads screwing into the barrel are 2 3/32. The diameter stated above is incorrect.

I must not have been clear. The barrel doesn't screw into the shutter. The lens' cells, which are in the barrel, screw into the shutter.

 

[Katmandaddy]

Hey Dan, Thanks for the replies. The first picture above is measuring the threads on the back of the front element after removing from barrel which I assume would be the necessary thread diameter of the receiving shutter.
The shutter facing threads on the rear element are the same.
If my conversion is correct they would be 53mm in diameter.
The second picture is the thickness of the barrel which i assume would be the same thickness of any usable shutter.
Sometimes my attempts at precision fall flat.

 

[Ian Grant]

I must not have been clear. The barrel doesn't screw into the shutter. The lens' cells, which are in the barrel, screw into the shutter.

The tube length is important with regards to whether it fits a plain Alphax 3#3 shutter, mine is 0.942^ / 23.87mm, so same tube length as the OPs barrel lens.

Ian

 

[choiliefan]

I have a 190mm Raptar mounted in an Alphax shutter. The diameter of the front cell mounting threads is 1.791" (45.51mm) . The outside diameter of the shutter is approx 73.25mm (2.883"). If you need any additional measurements let me know. Best wishes,