My stereo slide mounting jig (long)

[P3D Ivester, Paul <ivestep@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greg Dinkins asked for more details about my stereo slide mounting jig.

Bear with me, as this may be difficult to describe.  The base of the
unit is a box with 4 short sides made of oak.  The top of the box is
.25 in. thick white acrylic.  The bottom is .24 in. plywood.  Inside
the box, centered below the mounting area is an 8 watt fluorescent
fixture.  The slide mount is placed inside of a square clear acrylic
frame, the inside dimensions are that of a heat seal mount opened
flat, the outside dimensions are slightly (about .5 in.) larger on
the top and bottom and about 2 in. wider on each of the left and
right ends.  The bottom of this slide carriage is a thin (.062 in.)
sheet of acrylic.  On each of the ends of the carriage is mounted a
toggle clamp that was salvaged from an old film splicer.  This toggle
clamp has been modified so that two arms come out from each with vinyl
tips on the end that hold the film chips against the mount in the
vicinity of the perforations.  One of these is mounted directly to
the carriage, but the other is attached to an x-y microscope stage
to allow for easy adjustment of that film chip.  An improvement would
be to have an z-y stage on both sides.

A mounting gauge from Reel 3-D is sandwiched between the white acrylic
top of the box and a thin (.062 in) sheet of acrylic.  On top of this
are two long strips of acrylic that are spaced apart the width of the
slide carriage described above.  Two thin strips of Teflon tape are
applied to the bottom of the carriage at the edges, so that when the
carriage slides between the guides, the bottom of the carriage will
not rub on the top of the alignment gauge (which is protected by a
thin sheet of acrylic).  The carriage is retained in this slot by
screws with plastic washers.

On a hinged board is mounted a pair of lenses in a focusing mount
 which was made by modifying the Franka full frame viewer sold by
Reel 3-D.  My prototype used lenses from a View-Master model B, and
the Revere/Wollensak lenses from Dr. T. might be better, but you
would have to come up with a focusing mount.  This lens assembly
swings up out of the way when inserting and removing the film chips
 and mounts.

In use, the mount is placed in the carriage. Next, the film chips
are cut (with a Hama illuminated cutter) and placed on the mount,
against the embossed tabs.  The toggle clamps are lowered to hold
the chips in place.  The viewer is lowered into position, and the
slide is inspected for alignment, first for vertical, and adjustments
are made with the y adjust knob.  The carriage is slid from side to
side to align the gauge with the infinity points.  The x is then
adjusted.  Next, I check for the near point to make sure that through-
the-window protrusion is OK.  Further window adjustment may be made
for aesthetic reasons.  Sometimes the play between the embossed tabs
on the mount is not sufficient, and I will need to flatten them to go
beyond their range.

Next I will tack the chips into place with my tacking iron.  This
was made from the ferrite core of a variable inductor, into whose
spiral groove  was wound a thin nichrome wire.  This is mounted on
a handle, and is powered by a 6V transformer, with a resistance in
series to limit the current.  This attaches the film lightly to the
mount in about 1 sec.  If necessary, I can crop the slide with
aluminized Mylar tape at this time.

I then remove the mount, fold it over and seal it shut with an old
iron that has been modified with an aluminum plate on the bottom that
has been cut to the shape of the mount, with cutouts where the film
chips are, to reduce the amount of heat transferred to the film.

This jig can also be used with mounts other than heat seal such as
the Spicer, EMDE and Albion.

Paul Ivester

Seattle, WA


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