Finally, after years of having it in a box reproaching me, I fixed my pretty thrashed Plaubel Makina III. I will never sell this camera, not because I love it but because nobody would buy it. It is the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree of cameras: ugly, temperamental, almost satirically unergonomic, yet somehow gets the job done. The primary problem was the rangefinder-- it had stumped my camera repair guy but then I managed to figure out the problem (all the screws holding the thing onto the cam had stripped). After that, it only took me 2 years to figure out the solution! And then 3 trips to the one hardware store that somehow had some tiny e-rings in stock. Now the rangefinder is usable, albeit horribly misaligned vertically.
And then I patched the last holes (so far) in the bellows with 3M black polyester tape. If you can't sell a camera, this stuff is great for bellows: it sticks to where you press it hard and doesn't have any thickness to stop a bellows from folding and is opaque. Of course, the bellows looks like Elmer Fudd after a fight with Bugs Bunny, but it works. Note too that this tape is expensive, just like this hopeless Plaubel Makina was. All Plaubel Makinas are optimistically valued, either as objects for sale or as things to be repaired.
So now I have an ugly, ancient, cranky (the self timer decides when it will self time all by itself) 6x9 press camera, most of the headaches of a Baby Graflex in a still- smaller package. In a fit of perversity, I stuck a roll of Verichrome from 1953 in it, and the 73mm Ww Orthar that I bought "for when I get this thing working" so long ago I don't know how many kids I had, and went out and shot some things. Came back, souped it (or brewed it?) in Caffenol C, got something besides backing paper stencils on a couple frames. Damn, it's in focus. Damn, that was fun. Now I see that this has a certain steampunk je nais cest quois. Plaubel Makina III, I can't quit you. Anybody know any bellows makers?