Lens changing curtain material for a Fujica G690

[Tumbles]

This one is probably a lot shot, but I want to replace the lens changing curtain in my Fujica G690. I fixed the few light leaks with some black acrylic paint, so it's usable now. The main problem when I use it, is that it leaves dust all over my film, and it sticks at a bit at some points when it retracts. I took it to my camera repair technician, and he's tried to do this repair before. He has one that's been sitting in the shop dissembled for two years because the material for the curtain has proven impossible to find. He said the dust is from the curtain slowly disintegrating, and that in order to function properly the material needs to be a very specific thickness.

So, I decided to try to see if I can turn up this material myself. I did find some things just looking around. There's a listing for some 0.2mm shutter curtain material on ebay, and I found that some people make their own material. This is going to be deep camera repair esoterica, but would anyone know the specifications for the material that would work with this camera, or any suggestion of where I could look?

 

[shutterfinger]

http://craigcamera.com/lit_newrep.htm has a reprint repair manual for $25.
I do not know if it will give the secs for the curtain or not.
I use Golden Heavy Body Artist paint http://www.goldenpaints.com/products/colors/heavy-body/carbon-black for curtain repair. I have coated full length curtains for Graflex SLR's with it. I dilute it 50% with water and paint on two thin coats.
If the touch up of pin holes you did with acrylic paint works then the Golden paint certainly will. http://www.michaels.com/ carries Golden's paints.
The rubberized coating, if that is what Fuji used, will be about .0005 inch / .0127 mm thick. Measure the material with a caliper if it is accessible without disassembly of the camera. Micro Tools Dead Link Removed may be another source for shutter cloth.

 

[John Koehrer]

Sometimes the simplest things. Shutter cloth. Microtools or ebay.
Something that MIGHT work is material from a changing bag*.
*If you have a spare & some thing to cut with.

 

[Tumbles]

I have the manual. It doesn't give any specifications for the material other than a part number. I have very little confidence in taking this thing apart myself. Looking at the manual, everything has to completely come apart in order to get at the curtain. I might be able to take it all apart, but things like the range finder alignment I'm not so sure about.

I used golden fluid acrylic to fix the light the leeks. The areas where I painted over are a bit stiffer, and it retracts slower over these area. I mainly want it to stop depositing fibers all over my film. I might try to go over it with some mild drafting tape, to see if I can lift a good amount of it up.

The only thickness of shutter cloth I'm finding so far is 0.2mm. I'm going to visit my camera repair guy today. I'll ask him if he knows what the specifications are. He probably has that camera sitting around somewhere disassembled, and I might be able to convince him to measure the thickness.

 

[shutterfinger]

The .007 inch / .2mm is the standard camera shutter cloth. It is also used as Player Piano bellows cloth. I have some and its cream colored on the cloth side and an attempt to dye it black turned it redish.

contact me if interested in a piece.

 

[Tumbles]

I went in and talked to my camera repair guy. He brought out the disassembled Fujica G690. He hadn't gotten as far as taking out the curtain so he didn't know what the thickness was. This repair was stalled since the customer wasn't sure if it was worth the cost to go through with the repair. This is a big, complicated, expensive repair. Everything has to completely come apart to get at the curtain. He said he wasn't that familiar with this body, but he seems to know the lenses quite well.

He didn't seem too concerned with finding the perfect curtain replacement material. The main problem might be finding someone to do this repair at a reasonable price. I remember calling someone on the east coast around 2008 about this, and they would do it for $250. I'll have to try and track this person down again.