I believe the Century Graphic is made of Bakelite? The problem I have is one of the catches for the body's GG panel has broken off and the other is not too strong. The catches are pinned in to the body and I need to remove the pins and drill and tap holes for screws. I am wondering if I can heat the pins with a soldering iron to get them out? Has anyone had experience with body repairs on these cameras?

Hey waynec,

I just found my spare parts body. The Graflok hook fitting is riveted through a metal backing plate on the inside. It looks as one could carefully grind off or drill the heads to remove them. Is the GG hook broke, or the rivets themselves?
To get to the back of the rivets, the plates holding the bellows must be removed, and these plates are held in place by the Graflok slider screws and so on. Everything will have to be removed, but it makes for easy cleaning. It looks like something could be devised as long as reasonably flush.
Stephen

I just read in some of the early ads for the Century that the body has an unlimited lifetime guarrantee.

They elaborate whether it was the camera's, the owner's or the company's' lifetime they were refering to.

Probably refering to the nature of plastics regarding landfills...

Drill out. Bakelite, being an early form of plastic will slightly deform under the heat of a soldering iron. If its rivets that need to be removed, a Dremmel or its many clones will be the best tool.

_________________
Graflex Corp.was a supporter of Rain Forest Devastation.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: 45PSS on 2006-02-15 15:38 ]</font>

Stephen, thanks for that bit of info. Yes it is the rivets, the heads apparently deformed because I believe the rivet material is brass. I've had the body apart before but didn't see the backing plate. I'll pull it apart and go from there. Good catch...well bad now. HA

If the rivet shanks are still tight in their holes, you might be able to solder "rivet heads" (blobs of solder) onto them and hold that hook/catch in place. On my Century I was able to solder one such head onto a shank and it appears to be secure (although I suspect that the other rivet may be doing the bulk of the work).

Is "Mahoganite" (Graflex's term for the Century's body material) the same thing as Bakelite? Just curious whether anyone knows.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Henry on 2005-11-27 10:53 ]</font>

strip the body, grind off the rivets, and replace them. You can get minature copper rivets from smallparts.com; call them and ask for a catalog. They have a lot of nice stuff, mainly catering to prototyping and experimentation.

The screws that hold the Graflok slide bars on the camera go through the body and thread into a backing plate that runs across the entire top and bottom (one on top, one ont eh bottom) inside the camera, and also keeps the bellows in place. I checked three of them and all the same. I found it easier to work back there and reinstall the bellows with the front standard removed from the camera and bellows.
And yes, they are littel brass rivets, and it looks like I will be doing this myself soon as while checking my own cameras I found one with the head popped off.
So thanks also for the small parts heads up.
Stephen

One of my Century Graphic's Graflok hooks escaped from the camera when the two little rivets that hold it on lost their heads. Luckily I retrieved the hook, and , using the rivet-stubs as guides, put the hook back in its place -- but not before I applied a thin layer of JB Weld's "Kwik Weld" formula between the hook and the back of the camera. Cures in about 6 hours. The next day the hook was strong enough to hold the back, and I have had no problems. YET. Will report when more time has passed. Only been a few days but SFSG.