The yoke on the Anniversary Speed Graphic appears to be made of brass and then finished in either black or a silver color. I have a camera that most of the silver finish has worn away, exposing the brass underneath. Has anyone been successful in restoring the original finish to the yoke? Did the factory paint this finish, or was it plated?

Here is a photo I found online that shows a brass yoke with the black finish wearing away.



Thanks, Wes

The black is a chemical finish like tool black, I've experimented with chemical blackening with some brass waterhouse stops I made but it wasn't very durable, I think I failed somewhere in cleaning the brass ( not clean enough ).
The finish was identical in look to the black found on the brass parts on Speeds and Graflex SLR's.
A silver finish would be nickel plating.

Thanks Jim. I found a can of Krylon "Nickel Satin" spray paint. I'll give it a shot and see how it works on the yoke. The camera is pretty much a beater, so it can't hurt to try it.

A coat of paint that covers the yoke fully will most likely be too thick to allow the front standard to slide into place and may intefere with the yoke moving in the bed guides for focusing.
Powder coating is a possibility as is baking on the enamel for durability provided the thickness isn't too much for the camera to operate properly.

Or just leave it as is, since the camera is a 'beater'

The camera is really just suffering from improper storage. Very dirty, nasty, and musty. But, it's mostly complete and unaltered. Perfect for me to learn a few things by diving in! I have disassembled everything and started cleaning.

The yoke is one part that I think needs some help cosmetically, so that's why I am asking about the finish. If I decide to paint it, maybe some careful masking of the slots that the standard slides in will keep things working smoothly. Powder coating may be worth checking into.

Any tips on baking enamel paint?

When the bed was disassembled, I found that the right side bakelite block is broken in two, just over where the focusing pinion rides. Is this common? I see that late model Anniversary's have blocks that are reinforced in this area.

The Anny Speed, like many other Graflex cameras, underwent in production changes. One of those changes was the bed blocks and focus lock. One of your cameras has a pad that is pulled tight against the yoke edge while the other style pulls a pad against the focus pinion. Cracked bed block at the focus pinion is not that uncommon. Bond it back together with a good quailty non expanding glue.
Bakelite is one of the first types of plastic.

Bakelite is very brittle. Nevertheless, it was used in the manufacture of many items. I have a Telechron commercial wall clock, vintage c. 1950 (the model 1H1308, for you Telechronics), with a cracked case. Epoxy, applied in the crack and behind it, on the back side of the case, has proved to be a very durable repair after many years. Don't know if the particular break on this camera would be amenable to epoxy, but if it is, I recommend it.

For the curious, here's a link to a photo of "my" clock; it's the one on the left: http://www.telechron.net/postwar/1h1308.htm

Just to follow up:

I used some "Super Jet" cyanoacrylate glue to bond the bakelite bed block back together. Worked very well for this.

On the focusing yoke, I ended up finding a nice one on the online auction site. So, don't know how the painting thing would have worked out. But, something tells me it would not have been too successful.