The second week of MIT’s Independent Activities Period came around and I visited the MIT Hobby Shop for the first time with a plan, determination, and a hell of a lot of inexperience.

I wasn’t exactly a mechanical engineer. Moving blades frightened me. And I had no idea where to begin. Luckily Ken Stone, the director of the Hobby Shop, did, and with each new task he taught me how to use another tool.

By the end of IAP I finished my camera’s body:

The camera is made out of cherry wood and brass. To my luck, the Hobby Shop had some cherry shelves that they wanted to recycle for an amazing price. I quickly bought a decent stock, and set to work planing the wood to the correct thickness. When I had finished, I cut one of the pieces up into the appropriate dimensions for the camera body (as I sketched out in my plan. Ken then showed me how to make the (annoyingly difficult) comb/finger joints and the slot for the inside frame (hooray for routers and dado sets).

To my luck the joints fit pretty well (the pictured joint is still unglued).

With the side pieces and the inside frame ready to go, the body was ready to be clamped. Ken offered me some advice (such as putting blocks on the joints and clamping the ends only) to keep the box square.

After a lot of clamps, glue, and time, the body was finally done and I could finally strike off the first part of my to-do list:

• body
• base
• focusing rack
• front standard
• ground glass and negative holder
• finishing

Posted under Camera Construction.
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