Strong fingers needed!

What ho one and all,

At the start of my CLA learning experience and have bought some cheapies off eBay; Pentax S1a and a Zorkie 4.

They are sufficiently inexpensive that I will dismantle for the learning experience, but in both cases, have managed to get them working again with minimal effort. And much to my disappointment, I do not really know what I did to get the shutters working.

But the Zorkie 4, what a beast. Those Russians must have had leather fingers since winding the shutter, altering the shutter speed or activating the rewind release is really tough on my manicured 21st century sensitive fingers! I will dive inside and perhaps some cleaning and lubrication will make the shutter cocking easier. Must be almost impossible to wind/cock the shutter with a roll of film inside.

Just my initial observations.

Rekusu said:

But the Zorkie 4, what a beast. Those Russians must have had leather fingers since winding the shutter, altering the shutter speed or activating the rewind release is really tough on my manicured 21st century sensitive fingers! I will dive inside and perhaps some cleaning and lubrication will make the shutter cocking easier. Must be almost impossible to wind/cock the shutter with a roll of film inside.

Click to expand...

And imagine all of this in Siberian cold

Thanks for the information!

I don't know about Zorki-4 specifically, but IME when CLA'd, cameras like FED-1, FED-2, and Barnack Leica should be light and smooth enough to rapid-wind with the side of one's finger, though if you do this enough, I suppose you'll get some calluses there! Recommended shutter spring tension is pretty low, and you might initially think that the springs must have weakened over the years, because there's no way so little spring force could do the job, but trust me, it's plenty adequate when all else is properly tuned.

It's probably just dug out from permafrost

Do plan to strip sown for the experience. Can probably improve the wind-on but certainly not one finger at the moment. Don't imagine the shutter springs have been tightened, but what do I know?

The second curtain does seems a little 'sticky' on the slow speeds. but I assume nothing that a good clean and re-lub would not improve.

some folks try more "lube" than clean, and then jack up the string tension. clean well, and minimal lube should make for a smooth advance, some of the Soviet cameras do have a spring that you have to fight to set the slower speeds. it is also posible that someting has been bent if someone tried to change the sutter speed with the shutter NOT wound.