Elliott, the new "King of Stereo Viewer Repairs"?

[P3D Dr. George A. Themelis <DrT-3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I just finished reading Elliott Swanson's detailed work on the 
Kodaslide I and II.  I might as well resign from my title (per
John Dennis of Stereo World) of "King of Stereo Viewer Repairs"
and pass this title to Elliott.  This will be one of his many titles
since he is already the "King of Kodak Camera Repairs", among other
honors.

Our 3-d hobby is enriched by people like Elliott who do not stop
experimenting and improving our tools and sharing their knowldedge
with us, expecting nothing in return.  

Regarding the installation of Wollesak lenses in Kodaslide I viewers
I am impressed by Elliott's solution and I am looking forward to
converting my 15 or so ;) Kodaslide Is to decent viewers that can
now be actually used to look at slides... ;) ;)

I do have these Wollensak viewer lenses - Revere too - in stock, 
for lens replacement like Elliott worked out in the Kodaslide I and
also in Life-Like, Revere, Wollensak, Realist (the Revere lens is
identical in specifications), etc.  Your life will be easier if you
are replacing one pair of lenses with another of similar specs.  If
not, then you will have to work out the details... I'll appreciate
hearing similar replacement jobs in other popular viewers, like
the Star-D, etc.  If anyone is seriously interested, I will provide
a pair of lenses for experimentation.

Most Kodaslide I viewers were sold without the electrical components.
I have found a lamp holder that accepts the same size of AC bubls
and will fit reasonably well in Kodaslide viewers, but will not 
connect electrically with the switch.  I can attach either an 
external ON-OFF switch or even a rhostat.  So, it is possible to use
these viewers in AC, or you can always use them with a 2.5 halogen
bulb and batteries or a power supply.

Regarding the repair of the cord in the Kodaslide AC lamp holder,
Elliott's approach is not very different than mine.  I now do not
slice the holder in half, but open only the end and work from there.
I try and make new connections inside the holder so no bare wires
are left outside.  I have to remove parts of the lamp holder body
(as Elliott describes) to make more space.  When I am done, I 
use several coats of "Star Brite" Liguid Electrical Tape which 
might be very similar to Elliott's Black Silicone.  But, to tell you
the truth, I HATE doing this repair... Maybe now I can give my stack
of damaged cords to Elliott to fix!

Finally, I appreciate Elliott's advice to buy my book to read the
"rest of the story".  While I do enjoy downloading free information
from the web and learning from the discussions in photo-3d, I also
believe that information has a price and people who put it together
must somehow be rewarded for their time and effort.  One cannot be
properly, or for too long, motivated by "fame" while he is covering 
all expenses to provide the "free" information from his own pocket. 

By buying the book, in addition to the infromation, you get something 
that might one day be a collectible and worth more than the original 
price. (I always wondered, does an unopened package of DOS 1.0 have 
any collectible value today?  And what will happen if I try to boot 
my Pentium PC with a DOS 1.0 disk?)

Thanks Elliott and keep up the good work!

George Themelis


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