Since I service motion-picture film equipment professionally my CLA approach is perhaps a little different. To clean a camera’s or a projector’s parts, after complete disassembly obviously, is something very important for me. I don’t use a ultrasonic washer but prefer to lay parts in solvents for hours to days, even if it costs paint or lacquer. With lenses I sometimes redo the lacquer finish depending on degradation.
I have a Paillard-Bolex H-16 Reflex on my bench these days, almost a ruin. I have found so many problems with it that I almost told the client to search another one in better shape. But we agreed on an amount of money and now I go over each part to make sure of its function. The camera is of the same age as me, so it has to be.
Lubrication is a critical subject. In that respect an oilable mechanism outperforms the others like a Bell & Howell Filmo 70 the Bolex. The less well designed makes need CLA more frequently. It’s as simple as that.
To adjust, whew, a GIC 16 the other week simply has its aperture plate not parallel to the lens seat. Left and right parts of the image will not be equally in focus. Nothing to adjust, the film race would need to be machined first of all. The lost material would be compensated by a shim sheet. How to adjust image height, if the parts hardly have space among each other? How adjust the play of the shutter gears, if the Bolex’ front plate has no room between screw bores and housing? After all it’s a snob’s camera, made for sale, nothing more. When heavily damaged back in the days of the company, Paillard would swap the entire mechanism or a group. Bell & Howell already did so in the twenties.