Homemade lens board material.

RaglanSurf

RaglanSurf

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Has anyone got suggestions for homemade lens boards?
I know I could get some 3d printed but I was thinking of some sort of opaque plastic. I just need to be able to cut it at home and drill a hole in it.
 
Perhaps look on Amazon for Black Acrylic sheet or Black HDPE sheet? Something around 5mm should be rigid enough.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
Perhaps look on Amazon for Black Acrylic sheet or Black HDPE sheet? Something around 5mm should be rigid enough.
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Thanks Andrew, What would be the best tool to cut it with?
 
A very fine coping saw and a rigid vice, I'd think. It's a very long time since I did anything like that, so there may be better tools these days.
 
Delrin (bakelite) is what I use, it cuts cleanly and glues well but can be hard to find, try ebay Personally I wouldn't use acrylic sheet.

Delrin is easy to cut with conventional tools i.e. hacksaw/file and I have an adjustable hole cutter to cut out the lens hole.
 
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sirch said:
Delrin (bakelite) is what I use, it cuts cleanly and glues well but can be hard to find, try ebay Personally I wouldn't use acrylic sheet.

Delrin is easy to cut with conventional tools i.e. hacksaw/file and I have an adjustable hole cutter to cut out the lens hole.
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That’s brilliant thanks Chris
 
Just to add a bit more detail, I use two pieces of 3mm (IIRC) thick sheet one larger than the other to create a stepped board. The inner one needs a hole large enough to accommodate the ring that screws on to the lens and holds it in place, some of these rings also have a step on them so a bit of careful measuring is needed.
 
mstphoto said:
Excuse my ignorance, but what is a lens board? :thinking:
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it is the detachable board on which a lens is mounted, typically to mount on to the front standard of a large format camera..
often made of wood or aluminium, depending on the camera. Can have groves, lips or steps to act as light traps. some are cut square others have rounded corners.
 
I made a number of lens boards for my Calumet and Brand 5x4 cameras using 3mm MDF, it's really easy to work. Both cameras take more or less the same board which would originally have been 4 inches square by 1/8 inch thick I think. For my Toyo I got hold of an actual metal Toyo lens board which had a huge opening in it. I adapted it to take the same boards as the Calumet.

I cut the holes using something similar to this tool in a drill press.

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A bit of a fiendish thing, mind your knuckles if you get one!

I have to make boards for my Kodak Specialist next. The rectangular boards have a stepped design so I bought some birch plywood in two thicknesses to sandwich together. I'll use the same contraption to cut the holes for the lens. I think I'll make the inner layer more like a frame so the lens can be attached just to the outer layer and the inner just acts like a light trap.

Interestingly, the 4 inch Calumet boards don't have any light trap, they are just plain rectangles.
 
sirch said:
Delrin (bakelite) is what I use, it cuts cleanly and glues well but can be hard to find, try ebay Personally I wouldn't use acrylic sheet.

Delrin is easy to cut with conventional tools i.e. hacksaw/file and I have an adjustable hole cutter to cut out the lens hole.
Click to expand...


I think Delrin is a suitable alternative to Bakelite, but aren't they are far from the same?

Delrin is more like nylon or PTFE to machine, it machine very well, I use it for low speed bushes and bearings as I can't get Vesconite here.

It has the advantage that it is not brittle, and comes in different colours.

If the temptation is to use acrylic/perspex type, use the polycarbonate, you can put self tapping screws into the edge without if splitting.

It also cuts quite nicely on a CNC router.
 
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