I finally put together my Kodak 8×10 and have been taking it out shooting. The woodwork and brass I decided to do a light “rejuvenation” to. I just didn’t want to strip down the wood, too clean for my liking. I did make some modifications to allow a Packard shutter to be installed internally. You can see the bulb tube going to a nipple to the right of the lensboard. This works great for old brass lenses without shutters.
Of course the whole point in the restoration was to shoot wetplates. I’ve been making a number of wetplate accessories on my laser cutter. Shooting on the road is going to be a challenge, but I think I’ve started to make decent plates. The below slideshow show a glass negative I made today. The trick is balancing total catastrophe with “pleasant mistakes” I don’t want 100% clean plates or I would just shoot some digital!