Removing Argolex Front ot Rear Lens Element

[gone]

I know this is a long shot, but does anyone have experience with removing the lens element(s) from an Argoflex TLR? I'd like to clean the aperture blades, but the camera appears different from what I'm used to. Will the front element unscrew w/o removing the geared outer part? Or, will the nut on the back remove only the rear element, and not the entire shutter? The last thing I want to do is remove the geared parts because I have had nothing but bad luck lining those things back up again on other cameras.

That looks suspiciously like a shutter retaining nut on the back there, and I've had no luck trying to grip the black front element w/ a mouse pad and spin it out. Thanks.

 

[DWThomas]

No first hand experience here, but you might want to take a look at this page on the Argus Collectors Group site. (I've no idea if the one illustrated is your model.) Over time the ACG has made quite a bit of potentially useful info available.

And August ("Argust") 14th is Argus Day if you have it working by then.

 

[shutterfinger]

The nut holds the shutter not the lens element but you may have to remove the nut to get sufficient grip on the lens element to unscrew it.
The front element looks like it should unscrew and may be what is holding the adjustment ring in place.

 

[gone]

I thought it would unscrew too, but according to the link that DWThomas so kindly provided (thanks!), it appears that the only way to get the front cell off is to take the toothed assembly off. I was afraid of that.

For now I'm just going to use the camera as it is, and try to remember to dry fire the shutter w/ my hand over the lens before taking any important shots. The shutter fires well and the speeds are good (except for 1/200, which appears to suffer shutter bounce), but because the aperture blades are a little sticky, the first time or two you fire the shutter it often runs slow.

Taking the geared parts off SEEMS simple enough if you mark them, etc, but the last few times I tried this on other cameras it was a disaster. On most cameras, like my old Rolleicord/Rolleiflex, you simply unscrew a lens element, clean the blades, and spin the element back on. Not so the Argoflex. What seems to be a very simple camera is actually much more complicated than it first appears.

 

[gone]

It worked, thanks to the info on that link of DWThomas's. Took me all afternoon, and I think I got the gears lined up strictly by accident just as I was about to bundle the camera off to be repaired at Mark Hansen's place for a princely $90 plus shipping, but it's together, the blades are clean, the shutter is firing smartly, and focus is spot on again. Hope I never have to do anything like this again as long as I live. For some reason, I have the hardest time w/ these geared focus assemblies. I have another TLR w/ the gears that needs focus set, but it's a Super Ricohflex, and should be straight forward, something the Argoflex wasn't! Now for a big glass of wine to settle my frayed nerves. This shutter/lens assy is put together unlike any camera I've ever seen. It's as if Argus decided to reinvent the wheel or something.