Opening up a Realist Green Button to 7p

[P3D Elliott Swanson <e3d@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I opened a Green Button Realist for a member of our stereo camera club
tonight, and this was the first one. The steel slide carrier is heavier
material than the Kodaslide. My recommendation for doing this with the
least effort is to take a Radio Shack chassis nibbler, and use a Dremel
tool with a fiber cutting wheel to remove the top 1/8 inch off the
hardened steel cutter on the nibbler. This will allow you to work inside
the clearance of the slide carrier without having to bend it. With the
nibbler you can remove over 90% of the metal on the sides of the carrier
needed to make the 7p window. The balance will have to be hand filed, but
this small amount of filing is far better than filing the whole thing.

The viewer is very Rube Goldberg in terms of the mechanics-- coil springs
opposing disk springs, etc, but it can be tuned. (George also puts out a
book on this one! If you own a Green Button, you ought to buy it.)

BTW don't use the nibbler on Red Button plastic to enlarge the window. For
this I recommend just using the fiber cutting wheel on the Dremel and a
file.

--Elliott


------------------------------