After spending nearly seven months on this project, I decided that August would be it. I needed to finish the camera before my photo class’ landscape shoot. So in one big effort to do that, over the span of one week I oiled the cherry, polished the brass, and plopped together some bellows (still looking for the right material, but blackout curtain, painted black, was what I used).

Keep in mind I was also working full time every day, so this was *not* an easy task.

I took a lot of shots throughout the night, mostly in an effort to create a time lapse video in the future. Here are a couple highlights:

All of the wood pieces are laid out. I spent an entire evening sanding each piece, first with 80 grit, then 100 grit, then 150 grit, then 220 grit sandpaper.

I then “ebonized” every part that “touched darkness.” Basically I rubbed the wood with a cloth dipped in India Ink.

Once all of the sanding and inking finished, I applied four coats of clear Danish Oil to the cherry.

For the brass: First, I made sure that all of the burrs had been filed away. Then I took some waterproof 600 grit sandpaper, placed it on top of a mirror (a flat surface) and sprinkled some water on it. Once I had sanded most of the heavy scratches away, I used a buffing attachment for my drill and some Brass-O to polish the brass. By the time I got to this point, it was 5 am on Saturday and I needed to leave for Sunday’s shoot by 3pm that day. As a result, I sort of half-assed the polishing, but I feel that it came out quite alright.

Posted under Camera Construction.
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