To Betax or not to Betax

[Curt]

I have three of those Beastly Betax shutters. One is accurate on all but the highest speed. They are all Betax #4's. Has anyone out there owned and had a Betax shutter CLA?
I also have one of the dial set shutters. I know that they are practically useless in the repair adjust department. I took it apart and cleaned everything including taking out the leaves of the shutter and the Iris. It is very time consuming and tedious work. I actually get speed now but the off set wheel to move the lever is almost laughable. There is no way that just replacing the springs would ever help this shutter. There is a watch mechanism for the delay and well even if the parts were available you would have to replace so much as it would not be worth doing.
My advise is avoid the dial set models except for taking it apart and getting some experience with the workings which is very interesting. And no I'm not going to work on any of my shutters or cameras. That's for S.K.Grimes to do. I just need to save up the hundreds to get them done. Too bad they don't offer a batch deal. Say two or three for a lower price.
I have some Ilex, Rapax, and of course Copal shutters too. They all have accurate shutters. The Betax are very strong looking though and I like that.

 

[Nathan Smith]

Not to slight SK Grimes in the least, but you really should contact (there was a url link here which no longer exists) and compare prices. She is a member here and does very fine work for a very reasonable price.
I'm assuming the Dial shutter you are referring to is a Dial-Set Compur. If so, I'll bet Carol can make it work pretty well. Sometimes the higher speeds can't be made to run at the posted speed (and sometimes they never did), but in general she'll make sure it's a close as humanly possible. Lots of satisfied customers in this users group

Nathan

 

[bobfowler]

Carol CLA'd a Betax #4 for me a few months ago. When I sent it to her, it was a mess - all speeds waaaay off. It came back working fine!

FWIW - I've lost count of how many shutters she's done for me (but I do know she has a Compur and 2 folders of mine on her bench now!).