ANH Luke Macrobinocular Build

TatooineMachine

Sr Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
Thought I'd try my hand at a Macrobinocular build with my step son Stone. I was 7 when ANH came out in theaters and I saw it 22 times. As a kid, I thought these were so cool and futuristic. As an adult, they are still cool but I was laughing at the fact that they are built out of 5 vintage cameras. I started hunting eBay and found the Eumig unilectric and the Bell & Howell Two Twenty easily and for cheap! The Seagull 4A TLR wasn't hard to find, just hard to find one with an aluminum knob, not all black plastic. The Kalimar Six Sixtys pop up rather often but are CRAZY expensive. I've been fortunate, I found the B & H for $20.00, the Eumig for $40, the Seagull for $130, and the Kalimar for $145, all including shipping. I also purchased one of Russ Rep's aluminum lens plates he had left over. The Seagull and the lens plate will be shipped tomorrow which only leaves me the second Kalimar and a transition box. There are some fantastic "How To" threads here to disassemble the Eumig and tip on the Seagull and Kalimar part removal. Here's my start and hopefully later tonight I will start stripping the Eumig.

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You´re covered on the transistion box, EVEN if I STILL have to take some pics for you :$

Markus
 
Won an eBay auction for a Seagull 4A TLR out of Pakistan for $129 shipped. Found a Kaligar 150mm zoom lens that is very similar to the 80mm prop lens. I want to see if I can modify it to the same length as the 80mm. For $19.95 shipped, it's worth a try! All that I have left to source is the second Kaligar lens if this 150mm experiment doesn't work and the mystery side box from Trooper. Thanks to Markus for digging me out an old transition box!
 
Referred to Clutch's Eumig breakdown thread and my son and I got our Eumig torn down. Great thread Clutch, thanks! We kept the yellow/orange needle in the black window as well. I cut part of the base of the needle off, shortened the needle itself and hot glued it in place. We got the clear bubble piece glued in place too. We're ready for the Kalimar breakdown and to add the RussRep lens plate once it arrives. I'll post a few pics tonight when I get home.
 
I opened up the Bell & Howell Two Twenty this morning. I will post a How To for the knob removal, it's really easy. I feel a bit bad that the camera is shot just for the knob......oh well it's for what we love - Cool Star Wars Props!!! Maybe I'll get one of Trooper's resin knobs, paint it up and replace it......
 
Here's a few pics of how to get the knob out of the Bell & Howell Two Twenty -

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Remove the 3 screws from the aluminum screened face piece

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Remove the 4 screws from the black front panel - keep the camera on it's back so parts don't fall out for the winder

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Remove the 2 brass screws from the back of the knob and remove the gear and knob separately - the dark red part inside the face of the knob will fall off when the screws are removed. Put the B & H back together w/o the knob & put the gear and dark red parts back together on the knob. OK, another step down!

I'm still waiting for my Seagull and Russrep lens plate and transition box. I'll start tearing down the Kalimar soon!
 
Well this made me start mine, I thought it might be cool to see two going together at the same time and maybe we can share ideas ( no hijack intended) So first of all I got the knob out of the bell , although I had 6 screws to undo behind the aluminium plate. Thanks for the guide, made it simple as a pimple.........

next the umig. I followed the clutch tutorial, however step 1 just didn't work for me, the only screwdrivers I could find small enough for the top two screws were glasses screwdrivers that were basically s£/t so I took the cover off with the lower two screws and left that aluminium plate in.

With cover off, I removed all the screws from the back of the cover, prised off the small knob that changes the numbers and slid the gubbins out, so now I have a bag full of parts I know I don't need, and one that I'm not sure....
 
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Here's some progress pictures. I tore down the Kalimar. One of the pop up knobs had a screw that had been glued in....nightmare! I finally gave up and cut the Kalimar body apart to get the knob section out and then Dremeled the screws from the back side so I didn't damage the button face. Not sure if I need the chrome part below the view finder. I need to really look at other member's build pictures. Still waiting for lens plate, Seagull camera, and the transition box.

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Macro body with bubble lens

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Transition box mounting area after tear down

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Here's the $20 zoom Kaligar lens I pick up. This could be cut down on a lathe. All the parts are metal. Might not work, but for $20 it was worth looking in to.

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Ask a silly question, I've edited this post because I looked at your pictures which answered my question. But I have another, how did you get the silver lump thing that's attached to the needle? Does your needle still move or did you fix it in place?
 

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Check out Clutch's tear down thread again. I pried it apart and cut off my needle arm, left enough of the silver tab to hot glue it in place - the needle is fix and no longer moves. I shortened the needle too. I put the black piece that drops in the channel of the Eumig and then glued the needle piece on. Here's a picture of the back side

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Cool thanks, I've got it stripped but ran out of superglue would you believe. I've also done the seagull, remove the chrome strip at the top (2 screws) remove the leather from the side with the knob, remove all the screws you can see. I had to break the back part off from around the knob. Then unscrewed the small black ring from the face, the glass ect falls out, popped the bell knob in and screwed it back together
 

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Well I screwed up and drilled the hole in the wrong spot on the Eumig for the Kalimar pop up knob...really bummed & looked bad, so I bought another Eumig. It'll be here about the same time the Seagull. Markus sold me an aluminum transition box he had left and that should be on the way this week from Germany. So we're on hold until the mail lady arrives with a few things. I guess I'll work on my daughter's Jawa!
 
Cool thanks, I've got it stripped but ran out of superglue would you believe. I've also done the seagull, remove the chrome strip at the top (2 screws) remove the leather from the side with the knob, remove all the screws you can see. I had to break the back part off from around the knob. Then unscrewed the small black ring from the face, the glass ect falls out, popped the bell knob in and screwed it back together

That other piece with the U shaped lines goes under the bell knob.
 
Wow, why is it that every time I reread a thread, it's like I see it again for the first time...... Thanks for the imput, I'm off Thursday till Wednesday so it's gonna go a little quiet from me till I get back and wow at the progress everyone has made.

thanks dude, I'll rebuild the knob straight a
when I get back.

g

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Well I screwed up and drilled the hole in the wrong spot on the Eumig for the Kalimar pop up knob...really bummed & looked bad, so I bought another Eumig. It'll be here about the same time the Seagull. Markus sold me an aluminum transition box he had left and that should be on the way this week from Germany. So we're on hold until the mail lady arrives with a few things. I guess I'll work on my daughter's Jawa!

Gutted mate, still at least it was one of the cheaper ones rather than the kalimar. I'm off for a few days tomorrow so maybe your post will have arrived around the time I get back and we can carry on.
 
Nice to come home to Russrep's lens plate and the new Eumig. I tore down what I needed to on the new Eumig, swapped the light grey face on from the old one, and glued the clear bubble panel on. I have a few questions for everyone who has built these Macros.....

1. How did you mount the aluminum lens plate to the Eumig?

2. Did you recess the lens plate for the 8 lens screws to sit flush with the back of the lens plate where it mounts to the Eumig?

3. Where can I find the small taps for the lens screws?

Thanks for the help!
 
Ordered a set of watchmaker tap & dies that go from .07mm to 2mm. I want to screw the Kalimar pop up buttons to the transition box & Eumig.
 
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