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Making A New Plastic Film Advance Lever Tip

ic-racer

Member
Joined
Feb 25, 2007
Messages
16,906
Location
USA
Format
Multi Format
One of the Rollei SL35 cameras I bought to fix came to me without the little plastic tip on the end of the film advance lever. It seems these levers are hard to come by on the used camera parts market.

So I decided to make a new one.

 
I had some epoxy putty and I kneaded some into active state and stuck it on a piece of metal to test how well it sticks.
After it set, I could not scrape it off the metal. This led me to believe the putty would work well on the tip of the lever and it would not fall off.
 
I put a blob of the epoxy putty on the end of the wind lever and formed it into rough shape as it set. I gave it a rough shape with knife, file and sand paper.
 
I continued using files and sand paper to get it to the correct size and shape:
 
Before spending the time to put a proper finish on the part, I installed it on the camera and ran a few rolls of film through to make sure it would not fall off. Indeed the epoxy has affixed it to the lever very well. I also had mashed it into the two holes already in the lever, to help hold it in place.
 
Finally I finished it with black lacquer:
 
You forgot the racing stripes...

Looks great!
 
BobD said:
Great job.

What brand of epoxy putty did you use?
Click to expand...

I did not mention that because I don't know, I bought it many years ago. This stuff lasts for years as long as the components are not mixed, and I just have the gray stick without the package (like below). Could be SteelStick from JB weld. That is the same color, with gray on the outside and dark gray or black center.

Kneading it mixes the center component and activates the epoxy. It set up pretty fast; 5 min.

 
Last edited:
It’s possible to buy different grades of modelling epoxy. Fine grades finish smoother. ‘Milliput’ is nice because you can dampen it to do the final smoothing and shaping. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are colours you can mix in too.
 
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