It’s a simple wooden box made from 25mm pine framing covered in MDF and painted.

The door is simply hinged to the front and has a piece of clear acrylic for a window. I wanted a much wider handle but the short one was all I could find (without getting into stupidly expensive designer kitchen stuff). The door is held shut with a magnetic cupboard catch. The top elements are made from a scrap piece of red perspex I had. I photographed an element on my own real oven then printed that out onto paper that I cut to fit under the plastic. It’s a bit tricky to photograph as the red cuts out too much light. In real life you can see the ‘elements’ under the plastic easily.

  Elements.

The control panel is some scrap aluminium that was part of the horrible original body on my Austin 7. I got some little black knobs from Surplustronics and glued short lengths of aluminium into them to fit through the panel. The knobs are then held on from behind with a spring which is held in place by a washer and a split pin passing through a cross hole in the shaft. This allows the knobs to turn but not fall off. I use a disc of felt under the knob so it doesn’t scrape on the front panel itself.

Knobs.

The big, red knob is actually a clockwork kitchen timer I got cheaply from a kitchen shop. That is simple bolted to the front panel. You dial in a time and it ticks down and rings a bell when it’s ready.

The labelling is the equivalent of Letraset dry transfers. This oven is of course the famous New Zealand Fusher and Pookal brand. I added the lettering and symbols then sprayed the panel with several coats of clear varnish to protect them.

The inside of the oven has two removable racks (removed from my own kitchen actually) and a bottom element. That element is made from clear vinyl tube filled with red acrylic paint. The ends of the tube were blocked off with ball bearings (from inside old spray paint cans) and then sealed with hot glue. It is held in tool clips screwed to the oven floor.

Racks and inside element.

The inside of the oven is painted matt black. The outside was painted with white enamel paint. To finish off the oven I made a cardboard box from scraps I had left over from covering the car (you temporarily cover the frame with cardboard to check the shape).

Oven box.

I stencilled the Fusher and Pookal brand on the box by cutting out the lettering on a sheet of paper then laying that over the box and spraying over it. Tomorrow is Christmas so I will see if I can fit a large toy oven into a small MGB! I’ll try to get some pictures of Sophie playing with it.

Update: She likes it!

So, where was I? The photography stuff continues. The darkroom is all working now. There was the tiniest leak around the pipe at the back of the toilet which was enough to see in black put mode. Some sealant took care of that. I made a temporary contact printing light consisting of a 15 watt bulb on a wooden stand and I also made a red LED safelight using an LED bulb from Surplustronics.

The bulb is one of these and I am powering it from a 12 volt supply though a simple LM317 regulator so I can turn the voltage down to dim the bulb. This works really well. I did a test with the bulb in the darkroom and at full brightness the paper I used remained unaffected for over 15 minutes. I sit the light on the floor and let the glow reflect off the walls.

Safelight.

The printing stand I only used once but it did work. The bulb was too bright (or too close) so the exposure time was only a couple of seconds. Too fast to have real control over exposures. I did get some contact prints though.

Contact prints.

The developing of the prints if very cool. The trays and tongs work well and it’s really exciting seeing the images fade in when you put the paper in the developer.

The printing stand only got used once since a bargain came up on TradeMe which I grabbed. An enlarger! There are lots of these about and they are cheap these days. The problem is getting one that doesn’t need shipping as they are bloody heavy! This one was nearby so I got it. It’s made in Poland apparently and will do 35mm and 120 roll film. It only has one lens though so to do 120 properly I think I need a new (longer) lens for it. It should be fine for contact printing until I do though.

Enlarger.

This is a colour enlarger so it actually has three coloured filters you can dial in and out. I am only doing black and white of course but they could be useful.

I also picked up a 120 roll camera, a Braun Norca IV Super, circa 1955. This cleaned up really well. I did have to remove the shutter and give it a good cleaning as the longer shutter speeds would jam up. I had to make a tool to unscrew the lens assembly and then used lighter fluid to clean the shutter. After that it works great. One of the lenses had a spot of fungus on it but a little dilute white vinegar on a cotton bud took car of that.

Norca camera.

I’ve been using it to take pictures and it works great. All totally manual of course but it does the trick. I also bought a cheap ($1!) CDS light meter and that has helped a lot too. I still need to finish building my own light meter using the Arduino and the light sensor I got from Mindkits.

I also bought something I have long lusted for. A Minox camera. These are the classic spy camera (they were actually used by spies) and even James Bond had one although for some reason he used his upside down!

Mine is the same model, a IIIs. These things really are sex on a stick and despite the odd film size they can still be used and take surprisingly good pictures. Well, so I hear. I am dying to try it out for myself but it is a bit tricky. The negatives are only 8 x 11mm and the film is a strip about 9.5mm wide and up to 50 exposures long. The film lives in tiny cartridges that pop into the bottom of the camera.

Film space.

These cartridges are tricky to get of course, especially in New Zealand. But you can still get them new! I ordered some from MSHobbies in the UK. The good thing is once you have the cartridges you can reload them yourself by cutting up normal 35mm or 120 roll film into strips. There are various gadgets and ways to do that and I think I can make something easily using razor blades and 35mm film. Of course that all has to be done in complete darkness but with the darkroom I can now do that. MSHobbies were very good to deal with and most helpful. The prices aren’t too bad given this is an obscure format on the other side of the world.

No developing the film is also a problem. I was thinking of all kinds of ways to get around this. Developing in trays in the dark, modifying an existing reel to make it smaller (I even bought a cheap second one to look at doing this) or taping the negatives to a carrier of some sort.

The correct way is to use the proper Minox daylight developing tank, a thing apparently as beautifully designed as the camera itself. No chance of getting one in NZ I thought and they seem to go for high prices on eBay and in the UK. Then I found one on Aussie eBay. I won that today, being the only bidder (for Aus$75 plus shipping). I am quite pleased since that and the camera make a complete unit now. Once a make a film splitter I am Minox self sufficient!

I cleaned the camera up using citrus based cleaner (used for removing sticky labels) on a cotton bud and it came up really well. Not mint but nice.

Cleaned.

The chain on the camera has beads on it to show distance. The camera will focus down to 8 inches which is why spies liked it for photographing documents. The chain has beads marking 8, 10 12 and 16 inches and the chain itself is exactly 24 inches long.

So now I am waiting for my Minox film, my developing tank and for a excuse to go and try printing some pictures with the new enlarger.

I have also done more on the bus sign (remember that?). I started building the limit switch mechanism. This is just a steel base with two vertical ends to which I have attached bearings using the same method I used on the main rollers.

I simply plug welded the end plates to the base then filed down the welds. The bearings are held in machined plastic caps made from chopping board. I use the same skateboard bearings which take an 8mm shaft and am using 8mm threaded rod through them. Between the end plates I shall attach a Teflon plate. A captive nut on the threaded rod will slide back and forth along the Teflon as the threaded rod turns. The nut will then hit micro-switches at the end of the travel of the blind turning off the motor in that direction.

I also strung up Steed finally!

¡Ole!

More work now needed on his electronics and on staining his wooden stand.

I have also done a lot on the Austin but that’s in that other blog.

Darkroom curtains.

A wooden dowel slides through the top and hooks over two 3M sticky hooks. I sewed Velcro tabs to the sides and bottom so I can firmly attach the curtain to the bathroom wall. The walls are white so I used white Vercro on them and black Velcro on the curtain itself. The curtain can be easily put up then taken down to be stored.  I did the same for covering the door but a single layer is fine there as it only has to block light leaking through the cracks around the sides, not direct sunlight.

I did a test where I waited 5 minutes in total darkness and I still couldn’t see my hand right in front of my face. Am quite interested to see if having a bath in total darkness is like being in some kind of isolation tank but that’s an experiment for another day.

I also today bought some better trays for developing prints in. At the Warehouse I found these plastic containers that actually came with clip on lids. They were cheap, only $6 each and they have ribbed bottoms rather than simply flat. Internal dimension are about 8 inches by 12 inches. I was able to get three different colours too.

Developing trays.

I bought off TradeMe some Tupperware mini plastic tongs for $2 each which will be very handy. Also from TradeMe I bought a cheap second hand book, The Darkroom Handbook by Michael Langford, which should tell me what I need to know to get started.

After finishing the curtains I did another project I have been wanting to do for absolutely ages. It’s my tribute to the Godfather films – The Godfather chopped off horse head hot water bottle cosy. This is of course from the scene where Mr Woltz wakes up to find his favourite horses severed head in the bed with him.

Now this is only the second thing I have sewn so it’s a bit rough but it works well and is actually usable! I used some fleecy type material (no idea what it’s called) and some felt. I just printed a paper pattern, cut around it leaving enough extra for a seam the sewed it furry side out then turned it inside out. Was a bit hard to sew as it didn’t feed well but it worked in the end.

Horses head hot water bottle cosy.

None of my female friends would help me with it since they said it was icky (*) so I had to wait till I was able to do it myself.

* Actual quote!

This weekend I finished Steed, well the puppety parts. I still need to string him up and work on his electronics.

Steed has hair!

His hair is furry material and since his hat can’t come off (his strings pass through it) I didn’t actually need to glue it in place. It’s just held in place by the hat and strings. His eyebrows are a lighter fur (Steed seemed to have light eye brows).

To string him up and to display him I needed a stand so I made one from bits of left over wood I found in my garage. It needs to be quite tall since Steed is operated standing up. Hanging from the stand is his controller. I will varnish the stand and paint the controller matt black.

Steed stand.

I also started working on his electronics again. I found the old sketches and upgraded them to Arduino 1.0.1. I need to get the Waveshield I bought working again first to provide the voice then I can work on the rest.

I also did more photography things. This was one of the pictures I took last week that came out interestingly. There are kind of streamers in it. I am not sure why at all. Just a trick of the light I guess. I think I am still under-developing my negatives though so next time I shall try a 4 minute dev time.

Streamers.

These are a few more pictures. I had to tweak them after scanning though since my exposure/developing was all messed up. One was an accidental double exposure. I also seem to have a light leak causing the lighter horizontal bar in the shots.

Apparently people pay for mobile phone apps to make photographs look crappy. I seem to have a natural talent for it!

I also did more towards making my bathroom light tight so I can use it as a darkroom and do contact prints. Last week I bought some dark, black fabric to make temporary curtains for the window and door. Penny let me borrow her sewing machine so I can try to sew them up. I haven’t used a machine since, errr form 1, when I was 11. I did one seam fine then ran out of thread. Bugger.

Sewing.

I also made a wooden top to fit over the bath as somewhere I can put my trays and chemicals. I am painting it now. The light grey is a sealer coat but I shall paint it a flat, dark colour eventually.

Bath bench top.

I am having trouble getting suitable developing trays. None of the camera places here actually carry them. Or much else darkroom equipment these days in fact. I did get some small paint roller trays though for $5.50 each (with rollers!) that might do. Bunnings to the rescue again! They are just fractionally smaller than 10 by 12 inches though which is a standard photo paper size.

Developing tray.

I also started work on the limit switch mechanism for the bus blind sign. This is simply a metal frame with a bearing at each end. I will attach them in the same way I did the bearings on the main sign rollers. An 8mm threaded rod will run within the bearings. On the base of the frame will be a Teflon plate over which a captive nut can slide, driven by the threaded rod. The rod will be driven via the nut holding the motor sprocket in place. Or I might try making a smaller sprocket driven off the chain itself. The captive nut will drive a bell crank lever to increase the movement. My sign needs 16 turns from end to end which is less than an inch of movement of the nut. I want to increase that so setting the limit switches isn’t so fiddly. It will all make sense once I make it.

Limit switch mechanism.

I also worked on the car but that’s in the other blog.

Tripod and bag.

This weekend there was an air show on at Ardmore (first flight of a restored Mosquito aircraft) so I went along and tried taking some pictures there. It was a very bright day and I over estimated a lot of my shutter times but I got a few shots. I also muffed a couple by forgetting to remove the dark slide again. I need a ‘Remove before flight’ label on it!

The film developed fine and I tried scanning in a couple of shots using my flat bed scanner. Having decent film that was properly developed shows this doesn’t work very well.

Aston Martin DB5.

P51 Mustang.

You can see the scanner makes everything slightly fuzzy, especially if you look at the frame numbers which are actually printed on the film. The negatives are much sharper. I need to start doing contact printing I think. Also the camera is bloody hard to aim! I’ll get better with practice I am sure but maybe some kind of viewfinder would be a good idea.

I also started work on the Arduino based light meter.

Pinhole.

This pinhole might be a little small for the focal length I am using. It is about 0.25 of a mm I think (the needle in the picture is 0.36 mm)  which gives an F-stop of F200.

Light/reflection proofing.

The inside was painted matt black and the shutter assembly had a piece of black felt placed over it as a light shield.

Finished camera.

I was going to make a small shutter button to use instead of the cable but with such a small pinhole the exposures on even a sunny day are at least 1.5 seconds so camera shake is a problem.

Using the Mamiya back the film cartridge comes right out of the camera making loading it simple.

Film loaded.

I then had to wait till Saturday morning when first thing I shot off a roll of film. I found I can get 9 full frames and most of a 10th. Being a back for 220 film the counter will actually go higher but it is pretty easy to tell when you’re wound to the end of the film. I am not using the shutter interlock on the back so you have to remember to wind the film between shots. To do so you first release the winder using a button on the back of the camera. Winding takes one movement of the lever then it locks until you release it again. This actually means I can do multiple exposures if I wish.

I also discovered it is really easy to forget to remove the dark slide! With that in place of course nothing get exposed. I tried to reuse the film by re-spooling it in the changing bag but that’s not really possible. I shot a second roll and that came out ok. There is some fogging of the film but I think that was me in my haste to unload it from the camera as it doesn’t seem to affect every frame. I still don’t think I have my developing correct. It looks weak to me which I think means under-developed still.

Negatives.

My friend Mrs Nicola stopped in and used her amazing Photoshop powers on one shot and came up with this:

Garage.

So getting better. I will try developing the next film for longer. Then I have no more cheap Shanghai film but I do have some Fuji Acros 100 to try and that one does appear on the Massive Dev Chart so at least I will know what should work developing wise.

The other thing I did yesterday was get some nice wood to make a small tripod for the camera. I wasn’t sure what was best to use so I carefully explained to the bloke at the timber place what I was making and he was most interested. Turns out he is a fellow geek.  He found me some nice Rimu to use and did me a special deal so it all only cost $5.50!

And finally, not camera related, I made Steed a shirt!

Steed.

Tie next.

I am getting ahead of myself there though. First the camera. The simplest camera you can build is a pinhole camera so, in the words of William Shatner, it started there. The first I made from foam board, glue and tape. The pin hole was made using thin shim brass (0.06mm thick) and a very thin beading needle. I simply gripped the needle in a hemostat and pushed though the very tip of the needle. I was aiming for a hole of about 0.3mm. I checked it using my microscope and peering through it. I mounted it on some black card with black tape.

Pinhole.

Knowing the optimum size for the pinhole involves some maths. Any pinhole will probably produce images but there is an optimal size depending on various parameters. There is a ton of information on the Internet explaining all this and a useful calculator on the Mr Pinhole site which is the one I used.

I then made a very simple box to contain the film spools. 120 roll film comes on spools and with a backing paper behind the film itself. In the end of the spools is a slot so I made a simple spindle form little bits of brass modelling tube I have and a wooden knob to turn it. The back of the camera has a small red window to allow you to read the frame numbers on the back of the film as you wind it on. I settled on a frame size of 6cm x 6cm. There are different numbers in different positions on the back of the film depending on which frame size you use.

The back is held in place with rubber bands. On the front I made a simple sliding cardboard shutter.

First camera ready to use.

That completed the camera. I shot off a few rolls of film and played about with different exposures times. On a bright day this camera needs around a 1 second exposure. In darker conditions you lengthen this. Given the dimensions of this camera (0.3mm pinhole, 50mm focal length, 60mm frame) the aperture works out to be about 170.

Once I had taken some (boring) test shots I needed to see if I had anything. To do this I needed to develop the film. Now this I have done before. I can remember doing it when I was very young in scouts then again once at school (although that was just printing) then again some years ago when I took a little photography course in the evenings at tech. Since these times stand out in my memory I knew it was something I would enjoy hence investing the time and money into this project when I already have about 101 other things I should be doing!

I bought myself a developing tank and a changing bag. The film is wound onto a spool that then goes into the tank which is light tight but with a lid that allows you to pour in the necessary chemicals to process the film. The film needs to be put onto the spool in total darkness hence the need for the change bag. This is a heavy, double layered bag that’s totally light tight. You throw everything into it then insert your arms into elastic edged holes (now I know how a vet feels) and remove the film from the camera, remove the backing paper and thread it onto the spool. Apparently this can be tricky but I haven’t had any issues so far. I think the brand of tank makes a big difference. I am using an AP brand one.

Tank, bag and chemicals.

You also need the chemicals – developer, stop and fixer. The film is processed in each for a certain time at a certain temperature so a thermometer is necessary as well as a water bath to maintain an even temperature. A stopwatch is also needed to time everything. The developing is the critical part. You have to pour it into the tank at a specific concentration, at a specific temperature for an exact amount of time AND agitate it with a particular rhythm to get the film to develop correctly. Normally the film will say how to develop it in a specific developer or you can look it up on the massive development chart for your particular developer and film.

If your film and your developer aren’t on it you need to experiment. Mine weren’t – I am still experimenting.

The first few films I did were very underdeveloped. I finally managed to get something looking like a picture though. The problem then is it’s a negative! You need to convert it to a positive. I found I can do some simply with my old scanner. It does a good enough job just laying the film on the bed so I can see what I have. I am still experimenting so things aren’t very good so far but I am improving.

Scanned negatives.

Given that I was getting something at all I decided to build a better camera. I saw a new, old, Mamiya RB67 Pro-S 220 roll film back on TradeMe and grabbed it (well, no one else bid) thinking to use it as the base of a new, more robust camera. 220 film is like 120 film with no backing paper (so you get more shots). The spools and negatives are the same as 120 though. I knew I could probably put my 120 film into the 220 back. Mamiya don’t recommend it but hunting about on the Internet it seems the mechanisms in the backs are the same except for the frame counter. All that will happen is I’ll run out after 10 or so shots while the counter indicates there are more frames available. I can live with that.

Mamiya RB67 back.

The back was new and unused but old. The seals in it were all shot (common and expected) but I was able to order a kit online from Jon Goodman in the states. His name is all over the camera forums as the chap to deal with and that he is excellent to deal with. I emailed him and got an almost immediate reply. I ordered a kit from Jon and payed via PayPal. Total cost was $14NZ including postage. The kit arrived today and contained new foam, instruction and a little bamboo stick to use as a tool.

Jon’s camera foam kit.

The kit arrived today and I was able to fit it without too much trouble. Jon and his kits are highly recommended. You can email him at jon_goodman@yahoo.com and mention camera foam seals in the subject.

This camera I wanted to be more sturdy than simple foam and also I wanted it to have a decent shutter. I was finding the paper one on my first camera to be tricky to use. To get a shutter mechanism I went to the local camera shops on Queen Street and got some processed disposable cameras. These are the single use ones you still see around (amazingly). When the process them they rip them open to remove the film and the battery for the flash and the rest gets thrown away. They contain lenses, shutters, plastic gears, spools and the flash electronics (useful for many things those). They’ll usually give them to you for free if you ask. I popped in and got given six of them!

Disposable cameras.

It is a bit hit an miss what you get. I got three Kodak cameras which were perfect as I could use the shutter mechanism by itself and the lens was easy to remove to be replaced with a pinhole.

I made the body of the camera from thin plywood. It clips to the camera back using small aluminium plates. I use a piece of black felt between the two to make it light tight. The shutter mechanism bolts to the front of the camera box and I am using a cable release to trip the shutter. I glued scraps of plastic cut from the disposable camera bodies to extent the plastic arm that triggers the shutter. The photo below shows the details but the camera isn’t finally assembled yet.

The shutter release cable uses a weird tapered thread but you can usually find a suitable nut that engages enough of the thread to make it usable. The nut is soldered to a brass strip that sits over the top of the shutter housing. A flat wooden plate closes it all off on the front to make it light tight. I arranged the bottom aluminium clip so that it pushes on the interlock on the camera back dark slide to allow that to be inserted and removed (the slide blocks off the backs so they can be removed from a normal camera without exposing the film).

Second camera construction.

I made two tripod mounts using suitable nuts found in my junk box and attached them to the base and the side of the camera.

I still need to varnish the outside of the box and paint the insides matt black. And I will make a shutter button that can be used in place of the release cable if necessary. It will take days to varnish as you need days between coats and I want about 4 coats. But once that’s done I can reassemble the camera and test it out.

Clamping the paper.

I fitted one end to a roller then manually rolled it up then fitted the other end. It is necessary to remove the sprocket on the drive motor to do this otherwise you can’t turn the rollers. The motor uses a worm and gear drive and in those the worm can turn the gear but the gear can’t turn the worm!

Attaching the ends this way means the blind isn’t modified or damaged in any way and also if the roller doesn’t stop before hitting the end of the blind it should just slide out of the clamp without being damaged.

I used a load of clip leads to temporarily wire up part of the drive circuitry. I am using two double pole relays and a double pole switch. Each motor terminal goes through a relay. The relays are wired so normally both motor terminals are connected to ground. When you energise one relay it switches that terminal to the positive voltage and the motor turns. If you turn that relay off again and the opposite one on it then switches the other terminal to positive and the motor turns the opposite direction. If you turn both on both terminals switch to positive so the motor won’t turn.

Using a double pole, centre off switch though I can arrange it so you can only turn one relay on at a time (or have both off). The switch is actually an old military DPDT but I only use half of it.

The final version will also have micro-switches as limit switches to cut off the power when the rolls reach the ends of the blind.

Switching.

Again here is a little film explaining and showing it working.

Vinyl tube spacers.

I also mounted the wiper motor using several more D nuts.

Mounts for the motor bracket.

With the motor in place I looked at the chain. The one I have was too long so I removed some links using a chain breaking tool. This simply punches out the pins between the links allowing you to separate them.

Chain breaking.

Unfortunately the chain was a little short. I could have added a link (actually two as there are two sorts of links in the chain) but that would make it too big and loose. Instead I was able to change the geometry so I could use the shorter chain. The drive system consists of three sprockets, one on each roller and the one on the motor. These are arranged in a triangle. By flattening the triangle I would reduce the length of chain needed. I did this by moving the motor up slightly (6mm in fact). I made the chain fit the two sprockets then I made two wooden plates to go under the motor bracket to raise it up.

Chain drive.

With the spacers under the bracket and the motor bolted down it puts enough tension on the chain to keep it nice and tight but still move freely. Chain drives work by pulling so it is better to have the driving sprocket on the bottom of the chain as I have it here so it is pulling the driven rollers around. The top of the chain doesn’t touch the top of the drive sprocket at all.

Drive in place (sorry it’s a bit fuzzy).

With that done I was able to test it and it works! I made a little film showing it running and how only one roller is powered while the other can free-wheel. It’s taking an age to upload from my phone to YouTube but I will put the link here when it is done.

Tomorrow I can make the hold down clamps that will keep the sign on the rollers and maybe test it with a roll of wrapping paper I bought to simulate the blind for testing. Next I need to make the limit switch mechanism and then, finally, the aluminium housing.

Here is the film finally uploaded:

After I got home I fixed up the wiper motor bracket by cutting and welding a new base onto it. I used oxy-acetylene to weld it.

Wiper motor bracket.

I made some slotted holes in the base so I can later adjust it in and out to get all three sprockets to align. Would be great if I had a mill to do such things but I don’t so I had to drill then hand file them.

Next I fitted the D nuts to the base board where they will hold the roller brackets. These things are great! All you do is drill a suitably large hole, insert them by hand to start them then drive them in with an Allen key. The threads cut into the wood and pull it home.

Once in place you can simple thread in a normal bolt. Well, mostly normal. I thought these would be metric and take an 8mm bolt. Turns out they are imperial and take a 5/16 UNC bolt. I wonder how many people just go and force a 8mm bolt into them though being so close (the 8mm starts to thread in then quickly binds). Oh well, being a British bus blind imperial is far more correct I guess!

So now I need to get some suitable bolts then I can bolt the rollers down and work out where the motor needs to be mounted. That will use two more of the inserts.