Continuing with the Worrall restoration and clean up, this week I focused on the tilt drive assembly. After much mining of old grease, case dirt, and oxidized aluminum, I was able to actually get my hands on the gears, drive shafts, brake assembly, and backlash adjustment sections. Special attention was paid to chiseling out the […]
Continuing Restoration of the Worrall Geared Head Read More »
The Worrall Geared Head was one of the premiere pan and tilt tools around the world for decades due to its silent, smooth, and accurate operation, and its ability to support extremely heavy cameras like the Mitchell BNC. When this unit arrived, it had a hitch in the tilt axis and a very large bump
Restoring Worrall Geared Head sn. 192 Read More »
A couple of days ago, Worrall Geared Head #192 limped its way into the shop. This geared head came in with the BNCR #136 that we showed in our last post, and believe it or not, it was in worse condition than the camera. I spent time this week evaluating and disassembling this geared head
Worrall Geared Head sn. 192 Read More »
All of the work on Worrall Geared Head #192 has been completed! I was able to make the pan and tilt axes run smoothly despite some of the lumps in the tilt axis tracks. Much polishing and cleaning smoothed out the big lumps to a very acceptable level. The pan axis was smooth once all
Restoration of the Worrall is Complete! Read More »
Parvo pan and tilt head restored and waiting for its camera! Now that I’ve had my hands on all the bits and pieces that make this unit pan and tilt, there are still a few very interesting mechanisms that make this head unique. Our 2nd photo shows one of the most interesting assemblies; the jackscrew
Restored Parvo Pan Tilt Head and Tripod Read More »
New arrivals! After many twists and turns with Fedex, we finally took delivery of equipment from the collection of Gunnar Blanke, a filmmaker from the Denver, CO area. Lots of neat stuff in this collection, including a Mitchell NC that was purchased by Lookout Mountain in 1959, two Mitchell GCs, an Akeley Gyro Head, a
An Estate Purchase Out of Colorado Read More »
It’s alive! The FC friction head restoration is finally complete! Here, you can see the friction head supporting Mitchell FC camera sn.8. Mitchell friction heads have a surprising number of parts that all had to be reconditioned or remanufactured in order to make this unit complete again. The casting hides 10 steel friction plates, 14
The Mitchell FC Friction Head Is Complete! Read More »
After much struggle, hammering, prying, wiggling, pushing, and pulling, I was finally able to completely disassemble this much abused unit. It is shown here in its current state, all the pieces cleaned for rust, petrified grease, and stripped of the old, crumbling paint. I still need to make a couple more parts before everything gets
An Update on the Mitchell FC Friction Head Read More »
A pan/tilt head for our John Wayne Grandeur camera! My friend Michael Geiger came across this partial original Mitchell FC friction head and was nice enough to sell it to me. It arrived missing the top plate, tie-down screw, castle nut, handle attachment plate, and the telescopic handle. But, it has an original Mitchell FC
Mitchell FC Friction Head Restoration Read More »
Among the crate of tripods we acquired last month, we were delighted to discover this original Eclair Camerette aluminum tripod and friction head. This was exciting because we could finally pair one of the Camerettes from our collection with its intended tripod. The Eclair Camerette and this unique tripod were introduced to the US market
Eclair CM3 camera on Eclair tripod Read More »
