About a year later the camera has been put back together! (thanks dad)
Which now means that full plate tintypes and ambrotypes will soon be coming my way and I couldn't be more excited. The past three years I have been using a standard 5x7 View camera that couldn't do landscapes at the size of doing 5x7 and its been something I have been wanting to do for a long time. 
(To check out the previous posts for this camera please click the buttons above)

The next step before this camera is completed is to modify a plate holder and to also clean this unmarked lens and make a lens board to fit this camera. I'm excited for this lens because there is a built in aperture ring. With my Voightlander lens I only have one waterhouse stop, and with my Marion lens, I have none. So I'm excited to do some testing once everything is built together and cleaned up nicely. 

We even washed the original ground glass and looks good as new! Also saved us some $$ for having a new one made. 

Couldn't resist putting the camera on my tripod to get a few pictures of it in front of the christmas tree!

I feel like this blog is going to be more of a picture gallery post, but in short, I decided to make my own dip tanks for Silver Nitrate and for KCN solutions.  Ive had friends that would buy their tanks from Lund that costs about 160 each ( I believe)and I know that is way out of my college student budget, so luckily I happen to know very excellent people who are good at crafting with wood and power tools, so I emailed one of them. ( THANK YOU DAVE ) 
So when the day came, my dad and I traveled to the Man Cave, Dave had the wood and acrylic supplies all layer out ready to go. 

As you see in the picture above, their is a dip tank. Its the one that we use every time we go to Old Town to do plates there and also when anyone does a shoot for on location. We went with the same design. Its what we know and what we are used to. 

Materials Used:
Half inch plywood
Prefinished maple
Black Walnut
Acrylic
Tools Used:
Table saw
Drillpress
Compound mitre saw
Nail gun
Acrylic adhesive

One of the first things Dave did, was to use the table saw to cut the acrylic. I have had little experience with using a table saw myself. For other projects my parents and I did for home, I always assisted in helping holding crown molding or base boards on the table saw, but never really interacted with the power tool. 
After the acrylic was cut the next part was to use some acrylic adhesive in a syringe and needle and to apply it to the seams. 

Next step was to take some refinished maple wood and use the table saw to cut out the frames and then glue them together and also use a nail gun. 

While looking around in Daves wood shop, I noticed that he had a unfinished dip tank that was meant to be a fixer one and it had a window cut out so you could see the clear acrylic while the fixing process was happening, so I asked if I could use that design and he gave me the okay. 
so before gluing the fixer wood frames together I picked out a side of which I wanted to be front, and my dad used a Compound mitre saw to cut a square, then we both used a hand saw to finish the corners. 

As for the last of our day, we glued everything together and then used the table saw to cut lids for the dip tanks. 

And last but not least was to cut the legs for the tanks so they can sit up at an angle. I didn't really photograph this part. But pictures of how it turned out will come soon! 

As of lately, my studio has been under construction. For the longest time I have been wanting to build my own workbench to put my soon-to-be portable darkroom ( Thanks Nick! ) and to have a space to be able to work and store some tintypes that don't have a home yet. Building something this large is new to me, I may have some handle on tools, but not all. Overall, I'm excited to finish this and design how I want it to look in the end! So far it just took this weekend to complete this much. 

Unfortunately not much to report. On the day I went up to Dave's workshop It was the morning after a bad rain and wind storm in San Diego and the rain was traveling over to his place (amazing cloud view though). 

Upon arriving it was partly cloudy but stopped raining. I was all worked up to start cleaning the metal and putting the camera back together, then it happened. The Sneezing. The runny eyes. From having a small head cold, and NO immune system and bad allergies to dust and cats, I had a massive allergy attack that just brought my day down upon me. 
What I managed to get done was to clean a little of the brass that was nickel plated (Dave figured that one out, I know nothing of which metal is which) using Lacquer Thinner with some Steel Wool. Made a HUGE difference. So for now, I brought back the pieces with me home to work on it till next time I go up to the work shop. 

Task one of today. Air blasting the whole camera! When my mentor got ahold of these cameras they have been sitting somewhere collecting dust, rusting screws, and having a bunch of spider eggs and dead daddy long-legs. I’m not the one much for spiders and I have no intention of getting up close and personal with them, so the only solution was to air blast the whole camera.


Then I moved onto to taking the camera apart, screw by screw. After an hour or so I had everything labeled in plastic bags with all the parts that go in the right spot of the camera. Including taking off the bellows without having them damaged. In the end, it all came down to wood frames. 

I wanted to get as much done to day as I possibly could, due to school ending for vacation and going on travel, so I know it would be awhile before I see this camera again. With everything apart and airbrushed most of the dust in the creases of the wood then next step was to restore the wood to its natural color. Dave helped me with getting started by getting fine steel wool and soaking paint thinner and started to wipe the wood and getting some of the gunk off and letting it settle for a few seconds then wiping it off. I was seriously impressed that under all that dust and grime was a beautiful orange red color. 

The last few things that I wanted to accomplish was to apply wax to add a nice and smooth finish to the wood and let it try till next time! Big thanks to Fernando for taking some of the photos of me working today! And a big thanks to Dave Smith for his guidance.