Kodak 2D – Lens Board

With the bellows done I was left with a four inch square hole in the front of the camera! A lens board was needed. For the sake of clarity, for those who have not meddled in large format photography, lenses are mounted onto boards one needs just the correct outer size to fit the camera, and the correct size hole in it! I decided, to be in keeping with the camera I wanted a wood one (rather than 3D Printed plastic or metal), further I wanted American Cherry as I understood that’s what the rest of the camera is made of.

Digression: While I was in senior school I had to do woodwork. I was never interested in woodwork and I’m still not! This camera restoration is an un-usual detour for me. One of my memories, apart from how pointless it was to spend 4 Monday afternoons making a cooking spatula that could be purchased for £1, was at the start of the lesson we all had to stand in a semi circle and take it in turns to call out a different type of wood not mentioned previously. All well and good if one was near the start, but of course one never knew what end to stand. If one couldn’t think of a different wood not mentioned, one had to help carry a scaffold plank across the school yard, across the field to the boundary of the school and back. If that was supposed to make me “fall in love with wood”, well it had the opposite effect. I’m not saying that I would have happily burn down the block, but I would have happily supplied the matches 🙂 Who’d have thought 43 years later I’d be looking for American Cherry.

Where in rural Dorset does one get American Cherry? The answer: 93 miles away as the crow flies, in the Devon town of Barnstable. 3mm thick, it took 5 minutes to find on Ebay and was with me 3 days later – easy! I cut two pieces to size, stained and varnished the front, as per my now usual routine – what a joy to not have to remove old varnish and stain first! You’ll notice that I turned the grain 45°on the second piece, hopefully to add strength.