Re: siamese lubitels

[Tom Deering <tdeering@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>  I'm interested in seeing your "cool
>little key that links right spool to left"
>to see if it differs from what Alan Lewis
>or I did.

It's a little hard to explain properly, so I put a quick picture on the web
at http://webman.mc.yu.edu/mf

I haven't seen what you or Alan did.  I just did what made sense.  Since
the left and right film spools are all lined up, I just needed a way to
link the right one (with the winding knob) with the left one (whose winding
knob I cut off.)  That way, turning the film advance knob moves both spools.

I found brass tubing that fit nicely inside the round hole in the film
spool, about 3/16th of an inch in diameter.  Then I soldered on two square
ears at each end, which fit into the slots in the film spool.  So that I
have what looks like an old fashioned skeleton key, with two heads, as you
can see in the illustration.

Making the key was easy.  I bought the brass from a hobby store, and
soldered it on a burner on my kitchen stove.

But the hard part was making a good groove for it to sit in.  I was afraid
that any wobbling would result in the film winding crooked and binding.  So
I made a neat jig that would hold a u-shaped piece of brass as I epoxied it
exactly in place.  You'd have to see it to appreciate it, I guess.

Cheers,

Tom