Well its all back together again. It needed a little more work than I first expected.
This is what it looked like…
And what it looks like now after some scrubbing…
If you can remember the rear bed was missing a strip of timber and there was the remains of a biscuit joint. I had planned on just making a glued butt joint but after speaking to the ever helpful Mark Voce, another biscuit joint was probably best.
This is how it looked…
I had an old wooden magic lantern, that I had kept for parts, and there was one section that fitted perfectly (ish). Unfortunately my limited woodworking skills plus tenon saw/craft knife weren’t quite up to the job. Thankfully Mark doesn’t live that far away.
Here’s that moment you realise you have put all your trust in one man. Mark taking a slice off the back of my camera with a table saw… Gulp!
The actual repair looks real good compared to how it did look, I’m well pleased with it, even if I rushed him.
The other problem I had was with the dark slide, the join where it bends was made from some sort of inset fabric to make the hinge. This had rotted away but left most of the fabric in between a very thin slither of timber. I had considered slowly chipping/cutting it out, but Marks router? made short work of it…
I used a couple of strips of black out blind fabric as a replacement, glued into place. Works a treat.
A lot of scrubbing with fine wire wool on the timber and the brass, some new hinges and tabs and here we are, all back together. I’ve not scrubbed it perfectly clean, I don’t want it to look like new!
I just need to find the time to shoot a plate with it now.
Thanks again to Mark Voce for his time and skills.