Project: Foth 6x9 Pinhole Part 4

Clamping the bellows while the adhesive dries

If I'm honest, my original conversion of the Foth 6x9 was a bit of a crude lash up. A somewhat half-arsed cardboard and tape hack. A quick "I wonder if this'll work" job. So I decided to do it properly this time. Gluing the bellows back in place was the first task. Unibond "Repair Extreme Power Glue" seemed to have the qualities I was looking for. Sticks amongst other things leather and metal. According to the pack it's "A super flexible multi purpose adhesive with new FLEXTEC™ patented technology" . "Transparent and odourless" too. Ideal. Glued and clamped in place with a few colourful crocodile clips I left it overnight.

New aluminium focus stop

Next job, a better lens stop. The first attempt from cardboard didn't work too well. (And while I'm about it, a new name for that part as this is a pinhole camera. I'm going to call it the "focus stop".) I made the new focus stop from from a small piece of aluminium right angle section, cut down and shaped to lock the lens pinhole standard in place. I attached it with a small dab hot-glue. Strong enough, but removable if necessary. Now the lens pinhole standard locks into place with a satisfying precise click. Perfect.

What else? I'd used a piece of black card inside the bellows for the shutter retaining screw to tighten down onto. Hmmm, I'm not sure what that's piece is called, so I'm naming it the "shutter backing plate". I wasn't happy with the card one. I wanted a proper steel shutter backing plate in there. Would you believe it, a fan belt pulley shim for a vintage VW is exactly the right size to fit over the shutter. And of course I had one handy! Cut down to fit inside the bellows and spray painted matt black. While I had the paint out I also blacked out the back of the shutter mounting and the inside of the camera back that had a lot of paint missing. It's all matt black in there now. Proper job.

So that's it, the Foth 6x9 f250 Pinhole Evo 2 is ready for a test run. Watch out for the results in part 5!