I have taken you all along with me as I restored this fascinating Universal Panoramic and Tilting Head Tripod, and now it is finally complete! The journey included completely disassembling the pan and tilt device, re-machining some of the bits and pieces that make it work, replacing wood on one of the legs that apparently a dog had chewed through, and remaking several of the leg lock assemblies. The wood has been carefully cleaned and conditioned with .0000 steel wool, coated with a light coat of paste wax, and all the mechanicals reassembled.
One of the unique features of this tripod is a cast brass cuff that fits over the end of the wooden section of the leg above the point. One of these was missing, and as it is impossible to duplicate it exactly, I went through the process of 3D printing a replacement cuff that is similar to the originals. The two remaining cuffs were badly damaged over time, the brass has become brittle and has split in many places. I put them back in place and squeezed them into a bed of 2-part epoxy so they are as close to original as I can get them.
The last part of this restoration was to make a hand crank for the pan tilt head. I took a destroyed speed crank for a Bell & Howell Eyemo, which, interestingly, had a very similar profile to the crank you can see in vintage advertising for this tripod, and re-machined it to work with this Universal head. As a finishing touch, I made a custom wooden spreader patterned after what was lovingly called the banjo-style spreader. After many coats of black lacquer, this project is not complete! Now I just have to decide if I want to sell the tripod on its own, or if I want to pair it with the Universal camera I have in inventory that is waiting for repair.
