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What did you fix today? (part 2)


Yes the wire running between the advance lever and the shutter is definitely something that tended to fray and wear out. It should cock the shutter on the first full throw of the advance lever and then you need to wind the lever again until it hit the advance stop to fully advance to film to the next frame.
I did open mine up for repair months ago and had already gotten a replacement front-side mirror and a couple of yards of steel braided wire to play with. Until I discovered the broken return spring. I'd probably have to look into watch main springs.

Similarly, I have a Kodak Medalist where the film advance knob has been disconnected from the frame-stop and shutter cocking mechanism. Works fine using the red window and manually cocking the shutter. No double exposure prevention though.
 
I did my first reskin, with rosewood veneer, no less. Seems very affordable too, I got 10 or 12 A4 sheets of different kinds of wood for 11€.

The subject was my second Ricoh Auto Half, an interesting little camera which, back in the day, had sort of swappable front covers with different psychedelic/space age 60s designs. They're not a proper leatherettes but a thin metal sheet covered with plastic. Pretty durable but mine were badly dented and one corner was peeling off.



I removed the covers, cleaned the front with alcohol and then traced the outlines by pressing a piece of paper into the recesses and going along the edges with a pencil, kind of like a frottage, to make the templates. Then I traced the paper templates on the sheet of veneer, taped along where I was going to cut to prevent the wood from splintering and cut them out with paper scissors. I did the final fitting by carefully sanding the edges by hand with a dremel sanding bit. I managed a pretty good, if not perfect, fit for the covers.

Finally, I glued them on with UHU all-purpose glue which should bind wood to metal reasonably well but excess amounts of which can still be easily peeled off and removed. I put the camera into an improvised vise because the edges were tricky to keep down and this glue needs a good deal of pressure.

As you can tell, I'll never be a product photographer but I think I did an okay job with the veneer:




A drop or two of linseed oil should work well to protect the wood and keep it fresh.
 
I think you did a great job with the veneer! It looks like a professional job. How did you choose the material for the veneer?
 
Thanks, that's very kind of you!

Good question also. I basically went on eBay and

a) got the thinnest veneer I could find (0.6 mm) and
b) got rosewood because I have a guitar with rosewood back and sides and I like how it looks.

My wife pointed out that the sheet of rosewood had a lighter, less stritated part in the center which would have made for a more subdued look, but I went with the outside of the sheet that has the distinct rosewood pattern instead. The dark vertical lines kind of echo the black trim around the viewfinder/light meter.

For those interested, here's a useful little write-up of a more complicated reskin:

Lomography - Re-skinning a Canon Canonet in Santos Rosewood

D.I.Y re-skinning a Canon Canonet in Santo Rosewood Veneer: a step by step tutorial.
www.lomography.com

And of course Dora Goodman's beautiful wood veneer work:

Discover the Gorgeous Hand-Crafted Custom Cameras of Dora Goodman

Dora Goodman's hand-crafted custom cameras are beautiful... there's no other way to put it. Built on top of fully-functioning classic cameras, she turns
petapixel.com
 
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@henryvk That looks good. Instead of linseed oil you might consider using tung oil. Dilute it to a 10-20% mixture with mineral turps and apply with a cloth. Several coats with a drying interval between coats will enhance and preserve the wood. Tung oil is food safe and can be used on wooden surfaces in the kitchen - bench tops, cutting boards etc. You'll need very little of it.
 

That looks great! Every so often I get the urge to pick up an Auto Half with one of the fancier designs, but then I look at the collector's premium they command and change my mind.
 
As a followup to post #1025, here's my completed Salyut-S repair/restoration. I thought it might be a challenging job, and it was! Simply figuring out how to install and tension the shutter curtains kept me occupied for more hours than I care to admit. And I'm puzzled about the lens, which contained several hand-cut brass shims, but lens wouldn't focus to infinity until I removed them, and the distance scale was way out of calibration, yet it didn't seem to have been forced or tampered with.
 
Pentax 645; Moved the lens pin bridge from a donor camera body to a body I purchased from KEH that was missing this item, but was otherwise functional.

This is a very harrowing thing to do; 7 tiny sliver caps with 7 micro, micro golden springs and a curved lens bridge that has little to no clearance for insertion. Took several years off my life, but I finally figured out how to stab it on without losing all those caps and pins.

Fully functional now...
 
Kino said:
...I finally figured out how to stab it on without losing all those caps and pins.
Click to expand...

I always work on a large fluffy white towel to catch all the things that would otherwise fall to the floor or go sproing. I once saw a watch repairman's workbench that had a bib attached to the bench, the bib tied behind the man's head and caught all the parts that would otherwise go rolling on the floor.
 
I have an enclosed, near transparent Tote or tub with arm holes and a viewing hole on the top. The sides provide a nice diffuse light when hit from both sides with LED pucks. A Panavise in the bottom holds most things, but there is a cloth on the bottom to catch springs and parts that go "pop" when disassembled.

Small, divided parts bins with snap on tops keep everything safe and in sequence of disassembly.

I also have a very large magnet from Harbor Freight I can sweep the floor with when something Ferros obtains terminal velocity through various apertures.

Suspenders and a belt are not a bad thing sometimes...
 
Beginning a new project: curtain replacement in a "parts" Nikon S. First step--making and beginning installation of the first curtain. I'm using fabric from Micro-Tools (Japan Hobby Tool silk curtain material and silk ribbons) and Cemedine Super-X cement.
 

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4season said:
I would love to know where he found those NOS parts and advertisments.
Click to expand...
Well, Skorj does live in Japan, so I think that explains a lot of stuff.
Half frame cameras were really popular there for some time, so they are plentiful.
 
Ok, I just took apart a modern plastic super zoom AF lens ... 17 elements in 13 groups ... needed to clean the two inner-most elements ... I never want to do that again !!! Think I will stick to old fixed focal length metal housed lenses.
 
A few weeks back, I replaced the worn out front bearing of our 13 years old dryer. That thing was so noisy that I could hear it from outside the house with the window closed (not kidding). Then, this past Saturday, I replaced the rear bearing which was only 3 years old but aged prematurely due the front one being so far gone. Now, the dryer sound as smooth as a new one.
 

Perfect for your darkroom towels! So it is a photography related repair .
By the way, old, thrift store acquired souvenir linen towels make the best darkroom towels - and you get to admire pictures of the Eiffel tower or Niagara Falls to boot .
 
Instamatic X-90. Fabricated a battery and did a lighted run of reloaded 126 film. I think I cracked it and can load respooled 126. Next is a real test.
 
Yesterday actually. Pentax LX FA-1 finder. The view through the finder had become increasingly hazy. I dismantled it and cleaned both surfaces of the moveable dioptre correction lens and the inside of the window at the rear. A slightly fiddly job owing to the two gears that move the v/f lens but not too bad. Any LX users should be aware that although the v/f window at the rear looks like multicoated glass it is (on mine at least) only plastic as are so many pieces of the LX. Thus any cleaning of this whether internally or just externally, should be done with great care.
Having reassembled the finder all was well once more and clear vision restored.

Steve
 

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I bought a Kiev 35A.

I had a "someone has been here before" moment looking at the top cover screws - and the metering needle spring was mangled. It sits a paper thin distance away from the top cover, so it was stuck and in wrong position. There are 2 such springs on both sides of the coil. I managed to make it into "G" shaped again with a needle and small tweezers.

Doing so it probably is not that linear anymore, so after electrical adjustment it seems to read somewhat correctly in the 1/30 - 1/125 range but closer to 1/500, I feel it reads wrong. But I need it mostly to show that metering is active and if there is camera shake danger under 1/30.

Tracing the wires that go from metering coil to the circuit board and from there to the bottom of camera I found out that the trim pot next to tripod mount is in fact the metering needle adjustment. It's very sensitive, I only adjusted it 0,5mm to achieve correct display at 1/30 speed.

The 3 trim pots on top circuit board are probably for the actual metering and/or shutter adjustment. But since there are 3 and no service manual available, I didn't want to mess with those. 1 trim pot would be easy, but 3... good luck finding out what does what.

At the moment shooting some Fomapan with this, let's see if the actual metering and shutter speeds are in the ballpark.
 

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