And we're back

     With the camera body more or less ready to go, it was time to paint. I had an old can of black enamel that I figured would be good at minimizing ambient light, but it took a few days for me to find it and dig out. Enamel paint smells. A lot. So always use proper PPE. 

     A nice, sticky coat of enamel later, things were looking pretty good. Unfortunately the enamel was gloss, which may complicate things if I get any internal reflections. Oh, and did I mention that enamel takes forever to dry?

     Once the enamel was mostly dry I cut down strips of felt pads to frame the film compartment. The strips were furniture pads, so very heavy duty and with low compression. I wanted something a bit more elastic, but I had these on hand and they were the perfect thickness. Felt in place, the film back rests perfectly in the rear frame.

     All that done, I needed a way to secure the film back in place. The felt was a nice touch as a light seal against the film plane, but it won't be of much use if the film back isn't pressed down and against the felt firmly. I caved and bought a few things from the hardware store. The first was t-nuts. They provide a channel in which you can screw a bolt into a shallow surface without bracing on the other side. I then re-purposed a 1" steel bar so that I could lay it across the film back and secure into the t-nuts. 

     I cut additional strips of felt for the bottom side of the steel bars. This meant that as the hex bolts are tightened into the t-nuts, that the steel straps press felt pads against the rear of the film back. This squeezes the film back securely in place and firmly against the light seals on the other side. So the film back is between two layers of heavy duty felt. 

     

     The problem with working with metal is that it is much less forgiving than wood. You can see that my holes didn't originally line up. I then tried to drill a second hole that did. Or so I thought. Neither ended up working, so I had to file down between the holes to make a channel for the hex bolt to move more freely. As the holes on the other side were more accurate, they will hold the straps firmly despite this little accident. 

     And finally, with the film back ready to go, I needed a way to secure the camera to a tripod. I had learned by this point that t-nuts aren't incredibly strong, so they wouldn't be a good idea for securing a heavy load at an angle. I bought a well nut and drilled through another piece of wood strapping. This would be the tripod socket, and this was secured to the bottom of the camera. Unfortunately, the hole I drilled was a little big, so the socket is loose. I'll have to think around this a bit.