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Mastersr
Tinkerer
Username: Mastersr
Post Number: 1
Registered: 02-2013
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 10:08 pm: | 
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Hi All,
Just got a "new" Brownie No. 2 Model F - it's in decent shape, the shutter works, the camera seems to be in good condition. Only problem: the mirrors are gone, totally missing. I saw some old postings on creating replacements for these Brownie viewfinder mirrors. My question is, what is the precise size the mirrors need to be?
Also, someone mentioned using some sort of reflective paper instead of actual mirror glass - this is attractive to me only because I work with my hands for a living, and am always a little paranoid about dealing with shards of glass. Cutting paper sounds a little safer!
Thank you! Any advice would be appreciated. |
Puderse
Tinkerer
Username: Puderse
Post Number: 62
Registered: 09-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 15, 2013 - 10:24 am: |
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Find a Polaroid, the kind that spits the picture out the front, for $0.25 at a garage sale and wreck it for the front surface mirror. It cuts into about 20 little mirrors for these old box cameras.
I have refurbed several 120 box cameras for my collection. I have them from 00 size to big as a bread box!
I've never cut myself cutting glass. Be careful, it's sharp. I've even cut glass to make knives for cutting electron microscope specimens! Broken glass is damn sharp! |
Adrian
Tinkerer
Username: Adrian
Post Number: 321
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 16, 2013 - 04:44 am: |
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There are various dodges for making mirrors - I found some little mirror glass tiles in a craft shop for 99p, they were very confused as to why I was happy to take the pack with a broken one in, and cut them myself with a glass cutter. Fiddly, especially in big gloves, but do-able. You could use a polished metal surface if you can find something you can cut it with - Ensign Ful-Vues used a metal mirror. Whatever it is, it will need to be flat - I imagine that might be a problem with reflective paper.
I have a knackered mirror to hand which I THINK came out of a No2 Model F, and it is 20mm by 14mm - though you could always cut pieces of paper until you get one that fits the slot, then use those measurements. However, I don't think a mm or two either way wil matter as long as it fits the slot - given that they're just set in grooves IIRC I honestly don't think that getting the size excactly that of the originals is a problem. |
John_shriver
Tinkerer
Username: John_shriver
Post Number: 99
Registered: 12-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 24, 2013 - 07:58 pm: |
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Kodak didn't spend the extra hundredth of a cent on front-surfaced mirrors for the reflex finders in the Brownies, or most of their other cameras. They were perfectly ordinary rear-surface mirrors, on thin (single sheet?) glass.
Cut them as large as fit in the little wooden wedges. Glue it in with Pliobond. It will fall out in 50 years just like the original! |
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