How to modify Ansco Shur Shot for bulb?

[jay moussy]

A forum member, gone silent it looks like, once wrote that he modified an Ansco Shur Shot for bulb.

Does anybody recall the modification, on this camera, or on the typical generic box?

Gradually becoming a box addict, I may end up with two Shur Shots, so one could be a bulb pinhole at some point.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Those spring shutters aren't hard to modify -- and almost all of the really simple (cardboard) 6x9 box cameras had the same kind, If you open the camera up enough to see the shutter, you'll probably be able to see what you need to so. Unfortunately, many of those cameras are riveted together, so you'll need a way to close it back up after making the modification.

 

[removed account4]

jay
my sure shot has a little metal tab on the camera's faceplate that you can pull up, actually there are two of them. One is for apertures and a yellow filter, the 2nd one is for T setting.
Have fun !
John

 

[Donald Qualls]

I've got a Shur Shot Jr., pretty sure it doesn't have the apertures and filter, but I'll have to look when I'm at home to see if it has a B setting.

 

[jay moussy]

Mine is the plain, later model, @jnantz, no fancy anything, just shutter release, and no even the flip-flop type!
@Donald Qualls yours must be same era, same construction as mine.

The front metal face is held by two small metal tabs on the side, so it looks like it would be easy to access the shutter mechanism. Still need to figure how to create "Bulb" tough, which was the original topic.

Anyway, I just bought another one on the auction thing, cheap, today, love the thing, takes 120, just need Bulb...!

 

[Donald Qualls]

Simplest way would be to eliminate the second shutter plate. When you fire the shutter in those, the first leaf opens, then the second leaf closes, and when you release, the two leaves come back overlapped. Remove the second leaf, and it'll stay open as long as you hold the lever.

 

[jay moussy]

Simplest way would be to eliminate the second shutter plate. When you fire the shutter in those, the first leaf opens, then the second leaf closes, and when you release, the two leaves come back overlapped. Remove the second leaf, and it'll stay open as long as you hold the lever.

(warning: digital material for illustration purposes only)
Older Shur shot seems to have a metal plunger holding up the second leaf, when pulled.
bright horizontal metal bar here:

How hard to replicate?

 

[Donald Qualls]

I'd have to look at that, ideally see it run, to be sure I have it right. Won't have time to examine mine tonight (and not sure I want to bend the tabs to open it, as you can only do that a couple times before they break off). Do you have a photo of the shutter after firing, before releasing the lever?

 

[jay moussy]

@Donald Qualls the above was borrowed not mine, and I haven't opened anything yet.

A youtuber is fixing his old-style Ansco shutter, so I will try to get some clues from his work.
Of note:
- there is a step on the outer shutter plate and the "bulb" pulled-finger holds it until operatro let go of shutter lever.
- the face plate little tabs seem snap back in place without complaining.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Okay, I have my Shur-Shot Jr. in hand, and the front plate off (snap tabs that won't break if I flex them just enough to come off the pins).

I had the shutter plates reversed in my mind. The rear one is the timing plate. Yes, removing it would give you a B shutter, but you'd probably destroy the shutter trying.

I see two potential ways. One is to install a stop to block the motion of the rear plate where the shutter is open; this gives a real closed shutter when the lever is at rest; the other is to install a block to just hold the rear plate in the open position permanently (which might lead to a little fogging if you expose the camera to bright light, essentially making a pinhole image of the back side of the front plate (it surely would fog the film a bit if you left the f/16 lens in place).

Let's see if I can quickly get a picture to where it'll make sense:

If you look at the two, um, wood-colored marks (been a while since I tried to actually draw anything in GIMP), the one to upper right is where a stop would make the shutter a conventional B. You could actually drill a hole in the front plate and put a plug into the hole, bottomed against the shutter plate, to give B, then pull the plug out for normal shutter operation, or make a slider bar that comes in through the side opposite the shutter release to do the same. The lower mark is where you'd put something to block the rear plate permanently open. I wouldn't do this except for a pinhole camers, and even then, I'd probably want to glue a piece of black felt or velvet onto the rear side of the paddle to improve the light seal (since the shutter disk doesn't have to turn against friction in that case).