Prototype 3 Build - Day 2

Here's Part 2 of our saga.

Body: Ground Glass Holder/Top

A thin, square 1/16" retainer gets glued to the top piece of the body - this just keeps the ground glass from falling into the body. That's it for now.

Body: Tripod Mount/Bottom

 The bottom element of the body houses the square 1/4-20" (standard) tripod mount. 

First, the nut gets glued onto a small square piece. 

 Then this assembly gets glued into the hole in the bottom plate. A copious amount of superglue is used here; we don't want the tripod nut popping out from overtightening.

Body: Painting and Assembly

To reduce internal reflections, all internal surfaces are painted matte black. Acrylic Tamiya XF-1 is my favorite for this purpose, since it dries very quickly, goes on in very thin coats, and has good coverage. Two coats is enough. This is a good point to stop gluing and start painting, because soon the interior will become hard to access with a brush.

 Here we are with the top, bottom, and front elements added to the body. 

Viewfinder hood mounts get glued to the top.

 The body is more or less complete! Now onward to the front standard. . . 

Front Standard

The front standard rides on L-shaped vertical supports driven by a rack and pinion. These supports are broken up into two pieces, to keep the grain running in the best direction. They simply get glued together.

They fit into the slots in the sides of the body, and a little bit of sanding is needed to make everything fit snugly.

The lenses are recessed into the camera body to attain the correct flange-film distance. There's an extra spacer needed for the 105mm D and DS lenses. But I'll be using a 105mm Black lens, so there's no need to use it.

Here they are, after being glued together, with the lens board.

And glued one more time, to the front standard.

The "L" side supports get glued to the front standard. 

Nylon racks are super glued to the side supports.

Another 8-32 hex nut is glued to the front standard.

That nut facilitates attachment of the shutter lever, which is composed of three small pieces, riding on a stainless steel shoulder screw.

Now we can dry-fit our drivetrain components (we can't glue them together until the camera is nearly finished). Here's the stainless steel focus knob (in the deluxe kit), with a nylon pinion and steel shaft. 

 On the opposite side goes another nylon pinion, and a stainless steel focus lock knob (again, in the deluxe kit). The shaft is sticking out a bit because I haven't trimmed it yet. They'll come cut to the correct length in the kits.

On this side, the front standard is kept from popping off of the camera body by a shoulder screw.

Looking pretty good with the lenses attached!

Hours invested up till now: 10 hours with many distractions