I have been sitting, staring at Mitchell Standard #46, trying to refresh my memory on all of the work that has been done up to this point. Here is a brief summary of what has been accomplished: The camera was completely disassembled, and drawings and sketches were made to outline what I had to do. The front of the camera had to be restructured and remachined, the bottom of the camera had to be restructured and remachined, and the shutter, the variable shutter, and shutter dissolve mechanism had to be reconstructed from the existing and inventory parts The fade/dissolve gear train was repaired and restored as much as possible using both original and inventory parts. Once the camera box was restored to the proper dimensions and aligned correctly with the donor rackover L-base, the movement and sprocket assembly were reinstalled, the magazine drive belt assembly was reinstalled, the shutter was put back in time, and the camera was gently handcranked with film. I even impressed myself with how much work I did before I was forced to turn my attention to more pressing projects! Here, for your viewing pleasure, is a short video of the camera being cranked by hand. There are still a few things left to do before the camera can be completely disassembled once again. I am going to try to restore the fade/dissolve control that was once operated from the top of the camera. I also need to remake the arched glass piece that covers the shutter position indicator. There is also a braking device that used to stop the camera when the auto fade/dissolve had reached the end of its travel. This is still missing a couple of little parts that will need to be made and installed. Once all of that is done, it is time for painting.
