Odd, I have an Ilex 12" Paragon But that's for the 4x5's since it's much lighter.

I doubt a simple recementing would ruin the coating as long as the person doing it did it right. The process isn't really that involved, but experience and expertise helps a lot. The usual solvents to remove remaining balsam shouldn't affect the coatings either. Of course there's a lot of "shoulds" and "shouldn'ts" and something can always happen.
The plan right now is to keep an eye open for a _cheap_ Aerostigmat. Condition not important at all. This will give me a test cell to try recementing. And I'll go from there. If that doesn't happen, at some point in the future, I would probably have the cell worked. It seems like the lens would be worth the investment unless I happen to find one with pristine cells for less than the recementing. From what I've read so far, seperation is very common with this lens though, so finding pristine cells might be difficult...

And what's wrong with radio-active lenses? One of these days I'm going to pick one up just to have one. But it's got to be useable on one of my cameras and deffinitely be hot. Unfortunately, sellers don't use that as a selling point

Rich...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2169984928&category=909

This should fit the bill. At least so far.

Due to ahhh....National security concerns the previous link to *************** has now been changed to a safer alternative.




<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Les on 2003-04-14 21:15 ]</font>

Thanks Les. But I was kinda hoping that noone else would notice that one...
So maybe none of the nice folks here will bid on it?

Oops sorry, I'll take it away

How do you find this stuff?

Thanks

Quote:

On 2003-04-14 21:45, RichS wrote: How do you find this stuff? Thanks

PMFJI. Look, and ye shall find. Don't look, and the other thing will happen.

I'm not buying anymore funky lenses! You've got it in writing-)))

Ahh, Les, you're ingenious deception paid off and I got the lens Only one other person tried to grab this rare item and they couldn't keep up with my frantic overbidding.

Or... Absolutely noone else in the world wanted such an ugly thing

Now all I have to do is find a source for optical quality Canada Balsam. Seems it's gotten a bit hard to find. If all else fails I could use the UV cements, but it's very difficult to take that apart if it doesn't go right and I really don't want to spend the kind of money needed for the UV lamps. That would kind of negate the whole idea of getting the cheap experiment lens and fixing this one for less that the cost of a replacement... Then again, there's Sun light and now that Spring has actually arrived, we may get one or two days of no clouds before Winter sets in again...

FWIW, Lens and Repro's lens bank lists an unctd 307mm f5 aerostigmat for $65.

I don't know if Canada Balsam (why isn't it Canadian Balasam?) gets too old to use, but I've got some around here you can have if
A. you want it
and B. I can find it.

I comes in a lead tube sort of a short fat pencil. The material reminds me of hide glue crystals.

Quote:

On 2003-04-16 02:26, Springback wrote: FWIW, Lens and Repro's lens bank lists an unctd 307mm f5 aerostigmat for $65.

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately it's uncoated, an older model, and too expensive to buy just to experiment with seperating and regluing the elements... But maybe good for someone else?

Quote:

On 2003-04-16 06:11, Les wrote: I don't know if Canada Balsam (why isn't it Canadian Balasam?) gets too old to use, but I've got some around here you can have if A. you want it and B. I can find it. I comes in a lead tube sort of a short fat pencil. The material reminds me of hide glue crystals.

A. I want it
B. I hope you can find it...

I don't think it can go bad. But I suppose it could get contanimated or 'dirty' over time?
I never thought of the relationship with hide glue. Both organic; one vegitable and one animal. And neither used much any more. Although hide glue is still used in furnature restoration and old-time purists. Seems nobody uses balsam anymore? Or maybe it's getting harder to find (the forest side, not the store side). I can buy various types of 'pitch' readily and cheaply. Basically the same stuff, but not filtered and not even necessarily balsam. It's used for water proofing wood products (buckets, canteens and such). And the liquid balsam used to be readily available for microscope slide mounting. That's difficult to find now too and has to be processed (poured out and dried) before it can be used for a lens... But it all must be available somewhere?

Thanks!

Hide glue not "used much anymore"? Huh!?

Hey, us musical instrument builders/restorers would be at a real loss without it. Unlike, aliphatic glues (such as Elmers), hide glue sets up in minutes and doesn't soften or "creep" when the instrument gets warm. And unlike epoxy, hide glue *can* be softened with hot water for disassembly and repairs. CF Martin Guitars uses it extensively in their product line. Try it for your next woodworking project - you'll never want to use that "cow brand" again!

BTW: unflavored gelatine is just a highly purified form of hide glue and works well as such. Think about *that* the next time the missus makes "Jello" for, um, "dessert."

...And as long as we're (I'm) on the subject of "archaic" materials: I still dissolve flake shellac in alcohol in order to repair/refinish instruments and furniture!

When I get even older, I'll probably wear pince-nez glasses and use an "ear trumpet", too.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: AWT on 2003-04-16 10:40 ]</font>

So we can stray off topic now and then
It's nice to hear about things like hide glue being used. I'm a very big fan of old techniques and tools in wood working even though I don't get the time to 'play' much. And hide glue does seem to be making a moderate come-back. There's even an instant variety in a squeeze bottle! And I would have no doubt at all that hide glue holds all our favorite cameras together (don't tell me I'm wrong, some fantasies are good to keep).

I have to thank you for the jello comment. I never thought of that. Wonder what kind of glue it would make? Hmmm, it's clear. Maybe it would work on lenses?

Some of the new products (wood and photo) are decent and useful. But all geared to the throw-away society without a thought to repairs later in life. So a lens (or chair) has to be recemented every 40 years. Is that so hard to live with? Maybe. After all, we still have plenty of room in the landfills and ya just can't beat those modern plastics...

Thanks. Comments like yours make me feel a whole lot better about things. Not many people nowadays appreciate the older ways and things. Although I would guess most Graflex users do

At RIT we were told that Kdoak was the largest buyer of gelatin in the US and what doesn't make the grade for wratten filters gets sold to General Foods.

BTW check the new Announcements Forum for word on Steve Grimes