leitz focomat v35 assembly

stool · Jan 27, 2016

Greetings,

I am hoping to find some advice on the assembly of my leitz focomat v35 enlarger. I have assembled the entire unit but cannot get the lens mounted and focusing collar fitted on properly. A ball bearing popped out during assembly which I managed to save, but have no idea how it should come back together. I do not care about autofocus on the unit. I just want manual focus working. The unit just spins endlessly without getting close enough to focus when I attempt to thread the lens in the helical. If you know how to repair/assemble camera equipment or enlargers I would appreciate any advice you have to give. I've consulted a number of manuals and assembly instructions but all assume that these parts are already assembled together.

I have contacted Leica in new jersey about repairing the unit and they barely seem to respond to my emails and keep saying I will get so and so to contact you with no follow-up. This leaves me wondering if I would just end up shipping the unit at enormous cost and the unit being sent back without any work done on it.

If I cannot get the unit up and running I'm thinking I should part it out and try again on the hunt for the ideal compact enlarger. Any advice? Can you think of any repair services that would work on these units? It was a stellar machine when it worked and I would really like to see it working again.

I am in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Hilo · Jan 27, 2016

Perhaps these people can advise you !

http://www.darkroomdoctor.com/Home_Page.php

stool · Jan 27, 2016

Fired off an email, hoping for some good news from them. Thanks a bunch Hilo.

Hilo · Jan 27, 2016

Good !

Perhaps it is smart to tell people where you are. There may be someone near you!

Alan9940 · Jan 27, 2016

OMG this breaks my heart! I would be devastated if I lost use of my V35. Sorry, no idea or advice to give but I sure hope you can get it working again!

Good luck!

CropDusterMan · Jan 27, 2016

Leica in New Jersey will not touch this, and they no longer support them. (Ask me how I know).

If you end up parting it out, I might be interested in some of it. I do first off hope that you come up with a solution.
Call "The Camera Store" in Calgary and talk to either Peter Jeune or Julian...they may be able to help you find a
technician. Not sure if you're handy or not, but it may just be a case of finding someone who is a good
mechanical person.

Ron789 · Jan 27, 2016

I have 2 V35's and recently exchanged the helical and some other parts between them. To do so I had to take everything apart and put it back together again. It was quite a bit of work but doable. But explaining it a a few words without actually seeing what is happening is hard. Maybe we could get on Skype so we can take a look?

stool · Jan 27, 2016

Ron789 and CropDusterMan, thank you for your solid advice.

RobC · Jan 27, 2016

this may be of use and maybe a source to get questions answered.

http://www.bonavolta.ch/hobby/en/photo/v35.htm

did you find the spring behind the ball bearing?

stool · Jan 28, 2016

As far as I know the spring is still there beneath the collar. I saw that site before but its not descriptive enough to get me through the repair.

AgX · Jan 28, 2016

You might make detailed photographs.
We might help, if not from knowing then maybe from assuming.

RobC · Jan 28, 2016

stool said:
As far as I know the spring is still there beneath the collar. I saw that site before but its not descriptive enough to get me through the repair.

As far as you know? That sounds like you don't know for sure. Without that ball bearing you will have no click stops.

I used a V35 in a darkroom I worked in and it was missing the ball bearing. It was a real pain. Infact the whole enlarger was so knackered it was real pain.
If you've got a good one in full working order they are very nice enlargers and easy to use. But a bad one, especially one which is out of alignment (bent), is a major PITA to fix.

Loren Sattler · Jan 28, 2016

Maybe Glenview can help you. Try this link: http://www.glennview.com/leitz.htm

John Koehrer · Jan 29, 2016

I haven't had a V35 for many years so....I don't remember anything to mount the lens beyond a common 39mm thread.
Is the bearing in the lens or the lens mount?
The OP suggests the mount, not lens.

AgX · Jan 29, 2016

John, many people here at Apug misuse the term ball-bearing for a click-stop that is made out of a spring-loaded steel ball.

John Koehrer · Jan 30, 2016

AgX said:
John, many people here at Apug misuse the term ball-bearing for a click-stop that is made out of a spring-loaded steel ball.

That would suggest the lens came apart rather than part of the enlarger because:

''The unit just spins endlessly without getting close enough to focus when I attempt to thread the lens in the helical.''

stool · Jan 31, 2016

UPDATE:

I am now certain that the clickstop (spring loaded steel ball) is the part which went awry.
Shown below is the enlarger assembled as far as I was able to do it. The spring is actually inside the red box area and fits the steel ball nicely when compressed.

Documentation suggests that the spring loaded steel ball goes into the red box area, and the screw to hold it onto the spring goes into the blue box area. Below are the said steel ball and spring which fall onto my easel when I was disassembling the unit.

When I thread on the lens mounting piece identified as "A" in the picture below I cannot seem to thread it on all the way shown by the threads still being clearly visible. But if I thread on piece A while the enlarger arm is at its lowest height I can get it to look like the second picture threading it further.

Even if I could adjust manual focus on the enlarger, which I cannot, because the helical just spins without raising or lowering the lens, the lens gets nowhere near close enough to the film to allow the image to come into focus. Below I've show a picture of the film being projected onto a piece of paper held about 4 inches off the enlarger base to try to close the gap between the lens and the paper.

AgX · Jan 31, 2016

-) There is no spring at your photo.

-) What I see is a set-screw. This is employed to fix that lower ring to the lens at a position where the springloaded ball at the static part of the helicoid will arrest at that ring.

But this all is indicated already in the manual given above.

I have to warn anybody to diassamble mechanical things without understanding their working in advance.
(Not that I never did such mistake myself, but I learned my lesson and so far I found ways to work around my mistakes anyway. But the latter typically necessitates more knowledge than the intended approach.)

AgX · Jan 31, 2016

I wonder though whether there was a stop to prevent the helicoid to be twisted out so much that the ball went flying out.

John Koehrer · Jan 31, 2016

Is the tube above part A part of the autofocus? In other words, when the head is moved up & down does that tube extend/retract?
Further, if it does; is the AF mechanism itself installed correctly. IE:not retracting far enough.

Are you able to disconnect the AF linkage, install part A then reattach the AF link?

I remember the enlarger is adjustable for various lenses or easels but it seems it was just with part A.

AgX · Jan 31, 2016

John, even without knowing that enlarger, one can deduce from that manual linked to, that the whole lens/helicoid assembly slides up/down at two rods when the arm is moving resp. the head hightened or lowered.

That helicoid is only to adjust the zero setting of the lens (which is set with that click-stop) and for focusing off the autofocus range..

John Koehrer · Feb 1, 2016

"I do not care about autofocus on the unit. I just want manual focus working."......OP

So If the AF linkage is disconnected Is he able to to connect A + B = working manually?

I'd love to get ahold of this thing for a little while.

Ron789 · Feb 1, 2016

Don't disconnect the AF linkage on the V35! It will get you into big trouble and it won't make any difference in solving the problem the OP is experiencing. The problem is that the helicoid for some reason cannot be threaded in far enough so in any focusing position the lens is way out of focus and cannot be moved into focus.
I sent him some photo's of my spare V35 - taken apart and put back together again - and some suggestions and questions. The problem is not in the click-stop, not in the autofocus, it's something in the way the helicoid is mounted. We're getting closer.

AgX · Feb 1, 2016

If twisting the helicoid back is the problem, then it might be due to that stop over which existance I was wondering in post #19 which now might act in the other way so to say.

Ron789 · Feb 1, 2016

There may be something in the way, but to find that out the focusing ring needs to be detached from the helicoid to get a clear view of what's underneath. There is a stop that normally prevents the helicoid to get threaded out too far, but there should not be anything stopping the helicoid from being threaded in. But yes, if something has gone wrong when mounting the helicoid or focusing ring, that might now block the helicoid. Detaching that focusing ring will be the next step once the OP has purchased a good precision screwdriver.

leitz focomat v35 assembly

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