Hasselblad Jig

[choiliefan]

...and a height gage, cylindrical square and small granite surface plate will verify all is good.

 

[mshchem]

I would be seeking the services of the best repair person. I've only dropped a camera once, Pentax SP500, scattered the uv filter and put a big dent in the camera. I would have heart failure if I dropped a blad

 

[sapearl]

Yes it can get knocked out of shape or twisted. Generally dropping a camera is not a positive thing.

I've owned two Hasselblads. The bodies themselves always impressed me of being very rugged. Throughout several hundred weddings and social events I was fortunate never to have any REALLY bad luck.

I agree though that dropping from a sufficient height, especially on a hard surface, say during the action of a wedding, etc. would clobber the body pretty well. Of course to do THAT much damage some of the gears, mirror box assembly and so on would also have suffered. There would be serious internal injuries. Since I don't have the expertise, this is repair work I'd never want to attempt.

 

[Jim Kilroy]

Jig?

The jig and group of tools associated with it (gauge bar, microscope tool, sighting tube and hand tools) are used to inspect and adjust the body focal length, the mirror angle, the screen height, and the screen flatness in that order. Without them, there is no way to know if any of those parameters are correct. People have made homemade tools that come close but close is never good enough as the factory tolerance is +/- .003”. I would say that maybe 1 in 20 bodies I service are within factory specs. The screen is almost always wrong. The body focal length gets out of whack from drops. What is the heaviest part of the system? The lens. So a drop usually lands on the lens therefore compressing or shortening the focal length. The body then needs to be lengthened. When it’s too long it is shortened with a soft hammer. Yes I hit cameras with a hammer. Long story short, the Jig and it’s associated tools are the most important equipment in the Hasselblad shop. Without them you cannot insure a camera can focus correctly.

 

[Jim Kilroy]

I wonder if there is a blueprint for 3D printing of hasselblad jig.
Cheers.

Very unlikely. It’s not just the jig. You need the jig, the gauge bar, the sighting tube, and the microscope tool as well as a couple specialized hand tools to perform adjustment to focal length, mirror angle and screen height/flatness. It has been tried, making knock offs. But they are not good enough when we’re talking .003” tolerances. The jig body itself is a solid piece of metal that weighs 10+ pounds. 3D printing just wouldn’t cut it.

 

[Jim Kilroy]

Just get a couple of "C" clamps at the hardware store, make a few wooden wedges, get a couple of calipers and start squeezing. Back in alignment in

OK, I've got a couple of these cameras. What the heck needs to be squared? There's nothing that can be adjusted. There's a mirror box, a lens and a back. There's no way to adjust the "square" . All the gears and shutters, and film backs need routine CLA . I've had to have my awesome repair guys work on backs. I've even cleaned some of the gear train on a motorized EL. Hasselblad cameras are amazing, totally mechanical, no different than a expensive watch.

Still want to see a Hasselblad Jig. And Sirius dancing doesn't count

No way to adjust? Why yes, yes there are ways. I do it all the time. The body is adjusted for focal length using a soft faced hammer to shorten or lengthen it. Sometimes the front needs to be shimmed to lengthen it too if it’s really short. Perhaps you meant there are no ways for a user without the proper equipment to adjust the body’s focal length? In that case yes, that is true.

 

[mshchem]

No way to adjust? Why yes, yes there are ways. I do it all the time. The body is adjusted for focal length using a soft faced hammer to shorten or lengthen it. Sometimes the front needs to be shimmed to lengthen it too if it’s really short. Perhaps you meant there are no ways for a user without the proper equipment to adjust the body’s focal length? In that case yes, that is true.

You speak with authority! This all makes good sense. Definitely makes sense when an expert explains the whole "universe" of tools and knowledge to use a fixture to "hopefully" return the camera to factory specifications.
It sounded a bit like a tool to bend a Pontiac straight after a collision with a brick wall.

Just curious how you can lengthen a Hasselblad with a hammer? I've used a slide hammer, do they have little bitty ones?

I remember having a similar reaction to removing hail dents by a technician using paintless dent removal. I was stunned, I went back in to tell them how nice it looked. The car looked better than new. All done with long handled tools removing interior panels.

I'm glad I've never dropped a Hasselblad, thanks for the explanation. I sure wouldn't consider this a DIY project, at least not for me.

 

[mshchem]

Seek and Ye shall find.

https://www.photrio.com/forum/threa...tory-service-tools-4-piece-jig-v-2229.180805/

 

[mshchem]

It does look a bit like something you would find in a body shop. Heavy Duty, sold for 4 grand!

 

[Jim Kilroy]

You speak with authority! This all makes good sense. Definitely makes sense when an expert explains the whole "universe" of tools and knowledge to use a fixture to "hopefully" return the camera to factory specifications.
It sounded a bit like a tool to bend a Pontiac straight after a collision with a brick wall.

Just curious how you can lengthen a Hasselblad with a hammer? I've used a slide hammer, do they have little bitty ones?

I remember having a similar reaction to removing hail dents by a technician using paintless dent removal. I was stunned, I went back in to tell them how nice it looked. The car looked better than new. All done with long handled tools removing interior panels.

I'm glad I've never dropped a Hasselblad, thanks for the explanation. I sure wouldn't consider this a DIY project, at least not for me.

When the body is out of the shell, there are two L shaped lips that the front plate mounts two. You give those some gentle taps to lengthen. Sometimes you use a drift and a hammer. Sometimes just loosening the screws a bit lengthens the body as well. Just be sure to re-lacquer the heads or it’ll go out of whack very quickly. I have dropped a few cameras and have always been lucky. I destroyed a back once which was preferable to the 30mm lens that was on the front of the camera! Happy Shooting!

 

[Jim Kilroy]

It does look a bit like something you would find in a body shop. Heavy Duty, sold for 4 grand!

A decent example. Looks a bit corroded but not bad. It is however missing two critical pieces. The hand tool to adjust the screws that determine screen height, and the microscope tool to determine the screen height itself. The microscope tool is very hard to find!

 

[mshchem]

When the body is out of the shell, there are two L shaped lips that the front plate mounts two. You give those some gentle taps to lengthen. Sometimes you use a drift and a hammer. Sometimes just loosening the screws a bit lengthens the body as well. Just be sure to re-lacquer the heads or it’ll go out of whack very quickly. I have dropped a few cameras and have always been lucky. I destroyed a back once which was preferable to the 30mm lens that was on the front of the camera! Happy Shooting!

I've learned something. Clearly a person needs training and experience to make these adjustments, unlikely that a 3D printed device could work. I found your website, good to know when we need service. Thanks for the expert explanation.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

At first I thought this thread was going to be about how Sirius dances.

It's what he does whenever someone switches over....

 

[ChristopherCoy]

sooooo.... is the jig up then?

 

[BrianShaw]

sooooo.... is the jig up then?

Not until SiriusGas prances!

 

[ChristopherCoy]

Not until SiriusGas prances!

I'm not sure even enemies of war should be subject to that kind of torture.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Not until SiriusGas prances!

A typical BS answer from Mister BS himself.

 

[fdonadio]

I believe it is the cube itself. It can bend.

Yes it can get knocked out of shape or twisted. Generally dropping a camera is not a positive thing.

Not only that. If the "cube" inside the 500 series body is taken apart — for example, to replace the auxiliary shutter (rear plate), the front bayonet plate or the focusing screen frame — there's no way to ensure that it will be perfectly assembled without a jig like that. In fact, it's recommended that a few different adjustments are made after every repair, most of which require its own different tool or jig.

 

[AgX]

A camera is not bent back into shape.
If at all it is milled again to parallelity. Then shimmed back to original flange/focal-plane distance.

The parallelity is most important in photometrical cameras.



The jig in question is a metrical device to do such measurements, not a straightening bench.