This is my Burke & James. Up till now I've had a 4x5 back on it but I've wanted to go bigger with 5x7. I have a 5x7 back for it but it was glassless and need a lot of cleaning.

My Satin Snow 5x7 ground glass finally arrived and it was worth the wait. He even ground the edges and put a cute little radius on each corner. I cleaned up my 5x7 back and installed the ground glass.

I took it outside and focused on my neighborhood. Oh, my! It sure is big. The glass is the size of the negative. And the ground glass is quite wonderful to focus on.

One problem I've been having is with the back attachment system. It uses a spring with a slot in it that receives pins in the back. Trying to get the pins in the new back to line up has been a pain. And to remove the back you have to pull the back away from the spring before you can lift it ouf of the clips on the bottom of the camera. It's real hard to get it off. This has caused some of the joints in the back to start coming apart. One of the great things about the Burke & James is that it is not a high end camera with all sorts of highly finished expensive wood. It's not a fine Cabernet. It's a cold Pabst Blue Ribbon. I can drill all the holes I want without remorse.

I removed the spring and drilled a hole just a little smaller that a 10-24 pan head machine screw. I screwd the machine screw in and then cut it off with my Dremel tool.

I bought a pair of Ace Hardware angles, 1/2 inch wide by 3/4 inch. I hack sawed one end off leaving just a short piece. I used the Dremel tool to elongate the hole to make give it some movement.

Push the angle in with your thumb and tighten the wing nut. Much easier.

The next part was not planned for but I will take credit for it. I had envisioned removing the wing nuts and angles to remove the back for rotating. It turns out that I can just loosen the wing nut and rotate the angle. No loose pieces!

I wasn't all that smart. When I rotated the back it turned out that the angle needs to be located a little more towards the edge. It still works but it doesn't look good.

I located the other side nearer the edge and it works fine.

I will probably leave it as is for now but I will have to come back and fill the mislocated hole and redrill it. Then, if I want to keep it this way, I will make some threaded posts a little longer, install them with a little epoxy, and use lock washers. Then fill the holes with a little bondo and put on a fresh coat of grey paint. For now, I need to clean up my 5x7 film holders and order some film.