Dropped a lens board on a customer's Speed Graphic in Philly

I was working on a 1940s Speed Graphic in my shop near Reading Terminal last Tuesday. My hand slipped while checking the bellows and the lens board hit the concrete floor, cracking the shutter housing clean in half. I had to find a replacement part from a guy in Pennsylvania who specializes in old Graflex parts, cost me about $120. Anyone else ever break something expensive while working on a repair?

3 comments

3 Comments

blakestone1mo ago

Wait, $120 for a cracked shutter housing? That seems almost too cheap, like the guy just happened to have the exact part sitting around. I'm honestly shocked you found a replacement that fast for a camera that old, usually those Graflex parts are either rusted to hell or sold for triple that. Concrete floors and vintage cameras are a nightmare combo, I don't know how you guys in Philly do it.

blair_nguyen1mo ago

Man, at LEAST it was the lens board and not the bellows themselves. Those old Speed Graphics are like that grumpy uncle who'll fall apart if you look at them wrong. I swear, the concrete floor in that Reading Terminal shop has a magnetic pull for expensive camera parts. You've got to wonder if that part guy in Pennsylvania is sitting on a hoard of Graflex parts he's been waiting to unload for 40 years. $120 is actually a steal if it got that shutter housing back together.

robertcarr1mo ago

Nah, that guy's probably got a basement full of those parts just waiting for the right sucker to come along. $120 is cheap insurance against having to explain to your wife why you need $600 for a camera repair.