Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Medium Format / Film / Digital Backs – and Large Sensor Photography => Topic started by: jeremydillon on October 27, 2014, 02:24:41 am
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I've got a 90's vintage Foba Asaba camera stand. The main column is showing a little bit of rust from its previous owner keeping it in storage near the beach in Sydney! I'm in the process of moving studios and thought I might get the column stripped and repainted while it's disassembled for transport. Has anyone done this? Can you think of anything that might go wrong? Is powder coating the correct process?
Comments?
Cheers
Jeremy
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Is the rust is where the bearings make contact on the column (A straight line about 6mm wide that runs vertically on one facet of the Hex)?
Or is it all over the column?
How do the bearings look? Are they rusty?
Does the stand work smoothly?
Send a photo of the rust if possible.
I've had one since 1988 and I don't know how a studio could be without one.
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The rust is just where the bearings run on the column. I suppose they weakened the paint a bit and allowed a bit of moisture in.
The rust isn't visible, the paint is just bubbling a little bit in places. Everything runs smoothly and it is completely functional, It just looks a bit tired.
I'm a little bit worried that repainting might change the dimensions of the column and mean I have to re-adjust all those bearings.
cheers
Jeremy
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Others with more experience will chip in, but very simplistically, powder coating means:
stripping everything down to bare metal, degreasing it, etc, spraying an electrically charged coloured powder to the bare metal and then baking each piece so that the powder melts, flows and creates a very hard, durable, almost plastic-like coating. To my knowledge it can't be done on a spot basis - it's all or nothin'
I don't own a Foba stand (sigh), but if it works fine, I'd consider just having a good body shop (or self) remove the rusted areas & bubbles, feathering them (create smooth gradient from bare metal back to good paint) and just touching-up the areas with a close-match paint.
It's akin to comparing a full strip to the shell and restoration of a classic car vs. touching-up some rough spots on a valued, already paid-for ride.
That said, if in a dry studio, just a nice job removing the rust and bubbles might just be fine. Would create an interesting look - think brassing on an old Leica ;>
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Can you attach a photo that shows the rust.
If it's just that one stripe and everything else is clean I would just use and enjoy the stand.
They don't need to be babied.
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Sorry, it's in storage while i organise a new space to shoot in so I can't send you a pic. If I do go ahead I'll send you a before and after.