On the Big Berta front, I have moved along albeit slowly building the beast, but made some progress. The wood panels require sanding, staining, and multiple coats of wipe on varnish, and have to dry overnight after each coat, so it is slow going.
Both lids are now finished with several coats of wipe on varnish, and I have started working on the focusing mechanism. I have two 20" racks and two 0.5 MOD pinions to match. My plan was to use an 8-32 threaded rod as the shaft because it fits the brass knurled knobs I bought, but I just realized it wasn't stiff enough across the 24" of the lid, so I will use a 1/4" steel rod instead, and use the other two brass knobs I have that can accept a larger hole. I ordered two new pinions with a 6mm bore to fit. The threaded rod will be covered with brass tubing. The brass knobs will be drilled and tapped 1/4-24 to fit the threaded rod.
The shaft will go through a brass tube that will be attached to a caddy sliding between two guides. The caddy is a 7 1/2" x7 1/2" x 3/4" piece of birch plywood with a slot in which the brass tube will be glued in position. To facilitate the sliding, a 7 1/2" x 8" x1/8" piece of teflon is attached to the bottom side by a dozen recessed flat head screws. It will be guided by two 3/4" x 1/8" strips of wood and held down by two 1"x 1/8" aluminum flat bars.
I did more research on the ambrotype chemicals and kits, and ended up ordering from another supplier. Basically, the only expensive chemical in the kits is the silver nitrate. One liter of 10% bath is $458 at Bostick and Sullivan, but only $238 at UV Photographics,
So I ordered the larger 8x10 kit from them for $370, plus an extra different developer to test.
I then considered making the silver nitrate tank to sensitize our 4x5, 5x7 and 8x10 test plates in the first stage of our project. The one liter of solution we get with the kit is actually barely enough to fill a very thin 8 1/4" x 11" x 11/16" tank(inside dimensions). So I ordered a 12"x 36" sheet of 1/4" thick black plexiglas, cut the panels and am now ready to assemble the tank as soon as I get the special aquarium silicone glue. When we get to the 16x20 plates, we will have to sensitize them in a rocking tray in the darkroom, because a proper tank would just require way too much silver nitrate solution(around 4 to 5 liters, costing over a $1000).
Next I need to make the plate holders, and I am still hesitating between two different designs, and whether to make it a spring back or not. We will need both an 8x10 holder (with 4x5 and 5x7 inserts), and a 16x20 plate holder with set of inserts so we can shoot 4x5 or 5x7 test plates before we splurge with a 16x20( which takes 16 times more silver nitrate than a 4x5...).
Every time I get into a new project, painting, sculpture, projections, whatever, I spend a good deal of time researching what has already been done, and that helps me figure out what it is I really like and what turns me on. That initial inspiration always ends up brewing, simmering, and after some brainstorming and experimenting leading to something that is personal, and hopefully has not been done before.
So I have been surfing Pinterest looking at and collecting all kinds of black and white portraits, new and old. There is so much material out there I just keep scrolling pretty fast until something catches my eye, for whatever reasons. There are a lot of good portraits of famous people by famous photographers, lots of perfectly lighted flawless images, but I don't really pay attention to the names, as there is a world of difference between a good portrait and a work of art. I cannot define exactly what is that special quality that transcend a mere photograph, I just know it when I see it, and there are ultimately very few that pass that test.
I also have been rummaging through 30 years worth of digital files and selecting in a special folder the portraits I shot on occasion over the last 50 years.
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