Want to Buy WTB: Graflok back (with or without focusing panel unit) for Speed or Crown Graphic

I'm looking for a Graflok back to use in converting my Anniversary Speed Graphic. I have a spring focusing panel that fits a Graflex-made Graflok back, but I found out after buying that I don't have a back that it will mount to.

I can buy a no-lens Crown Graphic with the Graflok still present on eBay (with a little patience) for around $300, so I prefer to spend less -- however, I'm willing to buy a Crown or even a Speed (with functioning focal plane shutter, if that's the case, as I'll probably find a use for that) if the price is right. I don't care about condition or even presence of: bellows, front standard, rangefinder, etc. and my spending preference takes that into account.

Hadn't any more than posted this, than I was referred (on another sub-forum) to 20th Century Camera, who (among other things) sell a 3D printed Graflok back (replacements for damaged/cannibalized ones and conversions for cameras that didn't have them). Their Speed/Crown one is for a Pacemaker, but as I understand it there's only a small screw spacing issue that I can correct with a needle file or drill (elongate the outer holes) to let the back secure properly on my Anniversary Speed. At $110, it's a bargain compared to the few I've seen or buying a beat Pacemaker, so I've ordered one.

I converted an Anniversary with spring back to Graflok and I'm not aware of any screw spacing issues at least with an original back. I don't think I left any screws out...

binglebugbob said:

I converted an Anniversary with spring back to Graflok and I'm not aware of any screw spacing issues at least with an original back. I don't think I left any screws out...

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That's even better. Did you obtain one of the relatively rare Graflok backs made for an Annie (which ought to have the same hole pattern), or did you use a back from a Pacemaker?

I don't know which it came from, but I would be surprised if they aren't identical. Quite a few Anniversaries were retrofitted with a Graflok back. To have made the backs different would have created chaos. If there was a problem, I've never heard of it.

Or are you saying the 3-D printed backs have to have holes filed to make them fit? That seems more likely.

I'm just repeating what was reported to me by someone who had installed a Graflok from a Pacemaker on an Annie -- report was the spacing of the outer holes was very slightly different, but that elongating the holes in the back (presumably by millimeter or so) took care of the problem.

I'll know for sure when my new 3D printed Graflok mount arrives.

I may have one. I'll look.

I can (when I'm home) measure the spacing between the holes on the Graphic (spring) back currently on my Annie -- that'll give us a comparison figure.

Okay, got the Graflok back from 20th Century Camera. That is a well done 3D print job; the lock plates are sturdy and move smoothly, and they have white lettering (not sure if it's raised and painted, or has a layer of white plastic printed on). This back is made for a Pacemaker; my camera is an Anniversary (as far as I can see, 20th Century doesn't offer one to fit the Annie).

The three screws on the camera bottom edge of the new back are perfectly positioned (though the screws they supply are wood screws, #2 I think, and the originals are small "raised countersunk head" machine screws that go into metal brackets that secure to the wood under the leather covering). The two screw holes on top are more than an inch closer together than the originals.

Drilling holes in the new part won't be difficult (though it won't get done tonight); countersinking them to the right depth will be a little harder.

Myself I took one Graflok back with body for my 2x3 Busch Pressman but the back seems one piece with the body, no way to unscrew it... maybe I have to take the saw out for a walk?

alexvaras said:

Myself I took one Graflok back with body for my 2x3 Busch Pressman but the back seems one piece with the body, no way to unscrew it... maybe I have to take the saw out for a walk?

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Some of the later cameras with Graflok had the body and Graflok base molded in a single piece from Bakelite or similar. I'd be concerned about the brittleness of the material for sawing and drilling, if yours is one of those.

That’s mine...

Might be better to get one from a Speed or Crown -- those have screws, AFAIK. Or maybe ask the folks at 20th Century Camera whether they can make one for a 2x3 size camera...

In the interest of trying to prevent confusion, I'm not convinced that there are different Graflok backs for the Anniversary and the later Pacemakers. If someone knowledgeable knows otherwise, feel free to share that information.

I do know that a lot of Anniversary Graphics have been retrofitted with Graflok backs, and I've never heard that Graflex complicated the situation by making two different 4x5 Graflok backs. Nor have I ever heard of any problem converting the Anniversary to Graflok back using Graflex parts. I didn't have to do any drilling in converting mine, and it took less than an hour.

If the screw holes in the 20th Century back had to be redrilled for one model, I suspect they'd have to have been re drilled for the other. 20th Century may refer to their back as being for the Pacemaker only because no Anniversary was originally offered with a Graflok back. Or perhaps because they had a Pacemaker to use for making the pattern and not an Anniversary. (If you don't have an Anniversary to check for fit, advertising it for the Pacemaker would be safer.)

I understand that Graflok backs were available in 1947, but only as an option on the newly introduced Pacemakers, while the last Anniversary was issued around 1946. Gralok backs only became standard on the Pacemaker in about 1952.

It was the Century Graphic that had a one piece body made of plastic ("Mahoganite") and that Graflok back was an integral part of the body--it could not be removed and used on a 2x3 Pacemaker Crown or Speed.

I have seen a Bush Pressman 2x3 converted to Graflok back, but the screw holes in the body had to be re drilled, which I would have expected--Completely different camera company. but the Graflok back could be fitted to at least a (2x3) Bush Press camera. Just how easily, I don't know.

If we presume that the back offered by 20th Century Camera correctly fits a Pacemaker (and I presume it does), then the Pacemaker has a very different body mount than my Anniversary. Mine uses 2-56 machine screws that thread into metal brackets secured under the leather, while the screw supplied are wood screws, presumably to screw directly into the wood body of the Pacemaker. There's a sixth hole in the back, near the edge where the film holder would insert under the focusing panel, and a brass insert to accept the pivot screw for the Pacemaker's pop-up viewfinder eye frame (vs. the one hinged to the top of the body on the Anniversary). And there's the matter of more than an inch difference in spacing of the upper screws. If they did pattern this from a Pacemaker, it seems to be strong evidence that Pacemaker and Anniversary backs were different.

That said, I don't have a Pacemaker available to me to compare. I do have a spare Anniversary spring back (don't now remember how/why I acquired it), and it matches the one I'm trying to replace.

Or perhaps mine is a transitional camera between pre-Anniversary and Anniversary models. It takes the same lens boards as my 1950s vintage Graphic View, and has an Annie style front standard lock and infinity stops -- but if it were transitional or Frankensteined that Annie front end might be matched with a pre-Annie body. The controls for the focal plane shutter also seem to match what I'd expect for an Annie, however, and exposures are reasonably accurate based on the focal plane speed plate on the top of the body, suggesting everything matches up.

So far, I've had no response from them to email I sent them this morning via their contact page; that might well be partly due to three hours time zone difference (I'm on the east coast, they're a short drive north of Portland, Oregon).

Based on this repair manual, it seems the back I received is correctly laid out for a Pacemaker. The breakdown for the Annie here is less clear (probably a multi-generation copy of a much older document likely of lower original quality), but it shows a center peep sight mount like the Pacemaker, but otherwise seems to match what I have, including 2-56 screws instead of "self-tapping" screws. This might be a newer version spring back than what I have, but I don't think we can assume the top screw spacing is the same.