Thornton Pickard Imperial Triple Extension

[Nas]

Has anyone used or serviced one of these cameras with a built in shutter? This is the first one I’ve come across and info online is pretty scarce. I’ve found it listed in a Thornton Pickard catalogue but that’s about it. This one is half plate size.
The spring seems to have lost all its tension but the curtain is in great condition and the bellows look like they’ve been replaced in recent times. I’d like to get this usable. I can’t see a way to remove the shutter like the TP reflex bodies.

 

[Ian Grant]

The shutter is just an over-sized TP Roller blind shutter, with an extra slot for focussing. I have one, but it's missing it's bellows. The shutter is accessed by removing the bellows and unscrewing 4 wooden strips.

If there's no tension at all in the bottom roller spring, that is a major problem. These were dual shutter cameras, the rear shutter is for speeds from 1/100 to 1/1000, the front shutter 1/10 to 1/90,



There are variations of the rear shutter, I've yet to strip mine down.

Ian

 

[Nas]

Thanks, Ian. I was hoping the bellows didn’t need to come off. I can’t see how to easily remove them without pulling off the glue.
Why is it a problem if the spring hasn’t got tension? Can’t it be retensioned? Or replaced? There’s tension in mine but hardly any. Would be great to find someone who has taken one of these apart.

 

[Ian Grant]

The issue is if the spring is broken. If there's some slight tension it should be fine, and it can be improved without taking the shutter apart, I just tried calling to tell you how.

Ian

 

[Nas]

The issue is if the spring is broken. If there's some slight tension it should be fine, and it can be improved without taking the shutter apart, I just tried calling to tell you how.

Ian

Thanks, Ian. I was in the darkroom loading 12x10 dry plates and paper neg and forgot my phone at home. I’ll give you a call later. Cheers.

 

[Nas]

I forgot about this thread. As a follow up for anyone seeing this in the future, I managed to get the shutter serviced and shutter curtain replaced and the bellows didn't need to be removed. Just need to wait until the plate holders arrive before I can test it out.