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I got rid of that pesky clicking on the aperture ring on my 50/1.7 Minolta lens... oh, wait... *D'OH!!!*

Man, that little ball bearing was tiny. It's probably no more than two feet away from me right now, but nowhere in sight.
 
spacer said:
I got rid of that pesky clicking on the aperture ring on my 50/1.7 Minolta lens... oh, wait... *D'OH!!!*

Man, that little ball bearing was tiny. It's probably no more than two feet away from me right now, but nowhere in sight.
Click to expand...

Bummer. Can't tell you how many times I have been in that situation myself (usually its tiny screws)!
You may find a magnet helpful in retrieving the errant sphere.
 
spacer said:
I got rid of that pesky clicking on the aperture ring on my 50/1.7 Minolta lens... oh, wait... *D'OH!!!*

Man, that little ball bearing was tiny. It's probably no more than two feet away from me right now, but nowhere in sight.
Click to expand...

Done that. :whistling: Found the bearing, but the little spring ended up mangled beyond repair.
 
I have two flashguns for my Speed Graphic. The 7" reflector works with both of them. The NOS 5" reflector only worked with the Graflite gun. I found that the pin of the 5" reflector was not making contact with the spring. I found a metal sleeve [spring steel rolled into a tube with the edges slightly apart] and used a small grinder to cut a short piece. I slid the sleeve over the end of the contact and now both reflectors work with both flashguns.

Steve
 
Finally got this working today:

vortexion001.jpg


Steve.
 
Purchased 2 Mamiya RB67 lenses last week. Both are 127mm

One lens was $13, and the other $14. They were ugly.

Completely tore one down lens/shutter and rebuilt is last night. It is now CLA'd.

I start the other one tonight.

I love having the 127mm. Great lenses. They were rated ugly at KEH, because of their condition, but the glass was pristine. Got to love a great bargain ! :D
 
Peeled the old vulcanite from an M4, going with Camera leather's Griptac in black
 
A friend gave me a pile of odds and ends. Found a Canon 102 speedlight (circa 1970?). Battery terminals horribly corroded. Used some Liquid Wrench (tm) and a screwdriver and scrapped the mess away. Result-- one perfectly working non-auto speedlight. I'll probably use it on my M3 when I need a small, simple flash unit.
 
Mamiya & Compur Rapid

Tore down and completely rebuilt a Mamiya 127mm lens and shutter. Works great.

Repaired a Rolleicord II Compur Shutter Timing escapement gearset and flat spring. Now to reinstall and set...that's tomorrow.

I can't wait to get this running again. It's been 6 months.

Greg
 
I tore apart my 28/2 Kinon and relubed the helicals. In the process, I found out why they have the rep for oil on the blades (which mine doesn't)--the auto diaphram mechanism just inside the mount, running the lever that interfaces with the camera's stop-down mechanism and runs on a circle of ball bearings--was absolutely sloppy wet with oil, which was running all over the inside of the lens in places it didn't belong (and which I cleaned out). Now it works great!
 
Rebuilding a Contaflex inside out for the most of the week. Its still in many pieces waiting for assemble.
 
I attempted to fix my Hasselblad Distagon 40mm f/4 "C" lens focusing issue, but failed... Now I'm trying to fix my lack of posts so I can start a thread here with more details.. :smile:
 
A Balda Super Baldax.

Cleaned up the shutter and sparingly lubricated anything which looked like it needed it. The shutter was taking about five seconds to close regardless of setting due to oil on the blades. It now seems to run perfectly.

This is the first time I have attempted a clean out and re-lubrication of a shutter. My previous attempts at cleaning only have had limited success. It took me a long time to work out how to put back the ring which adjusts the shutter speeds and once it was all back together I was surprised at how easily and smoothly this ring turns. So much so that at first I thought I had not done it correctly and it wasn't engaging on anything. However, all speeds appear to be correct.

The arrangement to lock the folding mechanism in place so it can't be folded up when focused anywhere but infinity needed some re-alignment and the viewfinder and rangefinder needed fifty years worth of dust cleaning from them.

I also had a look at the overly complex auto spacing wind on mechanism. I was trying to see if I could simplify it and just use the red window to align the frame numbers but I ended up putting it back together as intended. These mechanisms are first turned the wrong way until they stop then turned the right way, also until they stop. The wrong way turn engages a drive pin at a different place for each frame to compensate for the gradual buildup of film on the spool and the correct rotation advances the film an amount pre-determined by the pin position. However it tends to stop too early so frames overlap. I have read that it is because the spool diameter is smaller now than it was fifty years ago and some people put tape on the spool to increas its size. I think I will just open the window and wind it on a bit to the next number.

It is now ready to test.

This camera came from an old chap who lived at the retirement home my wife used to work at. She brought it home for me to look at as it was not working. I lent him a 6x6 Zeiss folder to use whilst I had his camera but it turns out that he has now moved several hundred miles away to be closer to his family so we have ended up in possession of each others cameras. If the family ever get in touch, I will gladly give it back but until then, I will get some use out of it on his behalf.


Steve.
 
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Two Tachihara 45GF cameras with pinholed bellows made light tight. Running 3M #850 1" wide black bellows repair tape down the length of all four corners of fully stretched bellows did the trick. Re-pleating the bellows is easy but tedious. Should be good for another 20 years!
 
Took the F-stop scale off a 1950's Compur shutter as the numbers were difficult to see. Soaked the old paint off in thinners and cleaned out the crud in the engraved lines & numbers. Wiped some white enamel paint over to fill in the afore mentioned lines and numbers and left to dry. After giving the scale a quick rub down with very fine wet & dry, it got a 30 second dunk in KRST. Having giving it a thorough wash and left to dry, the KRST has turned the brass a satin black which sets off the white numbers quite nicely - Could probably do with a further treatment in KRST and a thin coat of lacquer..
 

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A couple of weeks ago, my GPS tried to commit suicide by leaping off the dashboard not once but twice. The second time it succeeded. The touch screen was smashed. I was able to locate a replacement touch screen on the internet. I could not figure out how to open the case once I got the torx screws out. I could not find a repair manual. One of the IT people at work suggested that I try YouTube. In five minutes I found a video that clearly showed how to open the case. Tonight I repaired the GPS on the first try.

Steve
 
Yesterday reassembled the Nikon DP-2 Photomic head for my F2 that had been sitting around in pieces for quite a while. Only had a couple extra pieces........

Last week tore apart my Nikon Coolscan IV and cleaned the mirror. Geez, no wonder it wouldn't work correctly
 
The "how many enlargers" thread got me thinking about my Saunders 7600 LPL with uncooperative Dichro knobs. It wasn't a big deal to open up the housing and free the mechanism, but I was struck by how improbably and needlessly tiny the machine screws that hold the lamp housing on are.

I also replaced the lamp I burned out the other day with my last ESJ. (and then I put the dead bulb back with his brothers in the "Lazarus" box... If I don't have a miracle soon, I'm going to have to buy some more.)
 
Picked up another SRT-101 from a random eBay seller, camera arrived with frozen shutter. Luckily I had another SRT-101 from which to make mechanical comparisons and finally figured out that it was somehow all related to the self-timer. Opened up the back, found the battery compartment had corrosion, etc. that had somehow leaked over to the self-timer shaft. Loosened the shaft with a screwdriver and heard the self-timer starting to close... faster... ca-click.. clunk... Fixed.
 
I fixed an 8X10 inch Tri-X negative after I developed it in PMK plus developer in a tray. Rather pleased with the results
 
Not sure I would call it fixing, but I just did an Ai-ectomy (or would that be Non-Ai-ectomy?) to a Nikkor 55mm f3.5 macro lens. I finally found my fixture for holding the aperture ring, so that saved a lot of time, didn't have to remake that. Slapped it on the rotary table and knocked off about .068 and eyeballed the edge 1/3 of the way between f16 and f22. Lens meters closely with others on my F3 and now I can fit it on a D3100 to hopefully try d!qit1zing a huge collection of old family slides quickly (so tired of scanning at a snails pace). Now I'm set and practiced up to modify a Nikkor-S 50mm f1.4 that's still on it's way in the mail.
DSC_1428.jpg
 
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