...and i will probably find out the answer myself shortly, but figured I'd put it out there for anyone who might have any thoughts and can put my mind at ease a little earlier. Doing a complete restoration of an anniversary Speed Graphic. At this point I have applied new leather to it, although have not embossed any lines in it yet (and it looks really good, so I hope I don't end up having to pull it off again and starting over). The leather is thicker than the original (about 1 oz. in thickness, don't know how much thicker that is). My fear is that once the external hardware is reattached, the added thickness of the leather will not allow the gears to engage with the rollers completely. My question is: does anyone know how much play there is between the rollers and gears? I could probably figure this out when I get home from work (where I'm writing this) and check the actual hardware and consult my manuals, but that's easily a few hours from now. So if anyone reads this on Saturday 3/15/04 before 3 - p pm West Coast time,let me know. Otherwise don't sweat it... I'll post my own answer later.

jeff

And the answer is... looks like they will engage, there appears to be enough play based on just ftting things together without screwing them in. Only time will tell, though this camera will be used almost exclusively with an Optar lens and Graphex lens, so wear and potential sli[ppage should be minimal. Huzzah!

jeff

Glad we could help. Sometimes, the best thing we can do is sit mute! But, we were rooting for you.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: alecj on 2003-03-15 18:16 ]</font>

As the saying goes: "those who know don't say, those who say don't know."

jeff