Our Cameras and the Future.. Repair-wise

There's at least one 3D printer that will print to 50um resolution.
Of course, you may not get heat-treatable parts, but then, it won't make scrambled eggs, feed your dog or work out your taxes either.
Please respond once more so that you may feel as though you've won an argument by having the last word. I'm moving on.
;P

50 µm is not a small enough tolerance. You have to get to 25.4 µm or 0.001 which is easily reproduced by most machining processes for precision parts. If you add precision grinding 0.0005 is no problem to achieve. This has nothing to do with my opinion but is a fact within manufacturing. I am sorry to hear you feel this is a competition.

Also E. Von Hoegh makes a good point that base material and heat treatment can be big factor depending on the application of the part.

This thread is a shining example of why I want to start my analog photography project (after I get into and finish a Ph.D. program, of course).

I want to learn how to get inside the guts of cameras, learn what makes them tick and see what kind of materials they're made out of. I also want to learn how to fix lenses (and maybe learn about optics, as well) and learn all about emulsions and chemical processes, in order to keep future generations from becoming ignorant about analog photography.

It's going to be another three to six years before I get my Ph.D., I hope nothing bad happens in the analog photography world that can hinder my project before then. *Knocks on wood*

mAc12563 said:

50 µm is not a small enough tolerance. You have to get to 25.4 µm or 0.001 which is easily reproduced by most machining processes for precision parts.

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For some parts perhaps. It's a bit of a sweeping statement to say all parts need this tolerance.

It's a common problem which I see in customers' drawings that everything is specified to the smallest tolerance manafacturable when a larger tolerance would be perfectly o.k. Sometimes a part which would easily be o.k. at +/- 1mm is specified to +/- 0.05mm.


Steve.

Sethasaurus said:

There's at least one 3D printer that will print to 50um resolution.
Of course, you may not get heat-treatable parts, but then, it won't make scrambled eggs, feed your dog or work out your taxes either.
Please respond once more so that you may feel as though you've won an argument by having the last word. I'm moving on.
;P

Click to expand...

Since you've demonstrated your lack of knowledge regarding precision mechanisms, precision machining, materials, and heat treatment, I'd say that any competition lies within your own mind.
The fact remains that 3d printing is useless for the purposes you are promoting it for. What 3d printing could be useful for is the reproduction of shutter and aperture blades, however your lack of knowledge and experience regarding cameras blinded you to this.....

Happy now?

"For some parts perhaps. It's a bit of a sweeping statement to say all parts need this tolerance."

You are absolutely correct. For a large number of parts of a camera high tolerances are not necessary, but my statement was focused on precision parts and the possibility of reproducing them using 3D printing as an alternative to machining or other precision process.

Cheers...

Steve Smith said:

Sometimes a part which would easily be o.k. at +/- 1mm is specified to +/- 0.05mm.

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Long ago in a different life I ran a metrology lab. We would tell customers they could have as many zeros as they could afford.

michaelbsc said:

Long ago in a different life I ran a metrology lab. We would tell customers they could have as many zeros as they could afford.

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: ) well said...

I just wanted to update everyone on my situation which influenced me to start this thread over 8 years ago. As I mentioned in post #45, I did send my Bronica RF645 to Tamron at that time. The camera was CLA’d and I’ve been shooting the camera rather hard since then and have had zero issues with this camera (knock on wood). I am at the point of assuming I should probably have the camera CLA’d again, however Tamron is not servicing this camera anymore. I have asked Camera Service Pro in Ga if they would CLA and they said they could, however I feel certain that if the camera were to need parts they probably wouldn’t be able to fix it. But there is a bit of hope. I also did end up buying another RF645 body in 2013 and this camera is in mint condition and has been just sitting, I run maybe a roll or two through it a year and it’s working perfectly. So that is my backup plan.

So I wanted to just give a bit of hope for many of us that are concerned about the future. Keep your cameras CLA’d and give them love and they will return the favor!