The bed and the back parts of the prototype are complete.

This weekend I finished the back and the bed (rear and front rails) for the "functional" prototype. By that I mean that the look of the parts will likely change (they are way to "squarish" right now) , but all the critical dimensions and functional elements are completed. This prototype will be completed into a functional camera to actually take into the field to test. My guess that will happen in the next 2-3 weeks.

There are a few design issues to be resolved (like the rear frame for the bellows and the bellows itself and the flat knob for the front standard shift/swing lock) but I don't expect these to be major issues.

This is very exciting!

Note : Please disregard the rough cuts in some places and the slight misfitting, some of the parts were "corrected" by hand because I didn't want to cut them again after addressing the design issues.

Getting close to finalize the design!

For the last few month I've been working to refine & finalize the design as well as setup for a small production run. Between the iterative process of making parts, testing them for function and fit, re-design and repeat, making fixtures for the CNC mill, trying out different materials and different designs for the numerous parts the camera is made from, calibrating the tools (bandsaw for resawing, planer, jointer, lathe), etc it kept me pretty busy.

But for the wooden parts I'm getting really close. Here is the last run of the wooden parts. There are still some fixes to some of them that need to be done, and then the parts need to be made again. Hopefully the next run will be the one to be assembled into a complete camera prototype.

The parts in the picture are for the most part just pressed fit and/or arranged on top of each other. The only part that was glued was the rear standard box. As you can see, there are for the most part not finished, and the next version will have a lot more rounded corners on the camera back. The wood is mahogany and it will be the wood to be used for the first production run.

I resolved some of the issues that bugged me for a while, like the spring system for the ground glass holder and the way to mount the bellows to the front standard. There are a few problems left, like mounting the bellows to the rear standard, the tripod mount, small various problems on how parts will be assembled (the problem being that the intended customer will likely not have access to taps, dies or any other tools beyond basics).

But I'm getting there.

Trip to the lumber yard!

The other day I found out there is a decent lumber yard near my house. So, after my trip there I picked up some wood to try, will make a camera of each to see how it machines and how it behaves. This doesn't change the decision to go with mahogany for the first production run, it's just a test to see what other woods would work. From left to right, tigerwood, padauk, walnut, zebrawood, purpleheart and yellowheart. Except for the tigerwood, closeops of the grain are below.