Original spare parts: Economical use and respect

Original spare parts are often rare, difficult to obtain, expensive, and the ones you need are always missing.

Reason enough to handle them carefully and not to waste anything.



Original and unused spare parts are often rare and expensive.


I have got into the habit of doing the following:


Repair before replacement

If a defective part can still be repaired, I try. If that doesn't work, I take the intact spare part.


Only irreparable parts are thrown away or kept for study

Only when a part can no longer be repaired do I dispose of it. Or I keep it for study and demonstration purposes.



This part in the film transport mechanism of a Minolta X-700 is broken and cannot be reasonably repaired.


Spare parts remain in their original positions

If I have a camera as a spare parts donor, I do not dismantle it to sort the removed parts. All parts remain where they belong and are only removed when I need them. This helps to find the parts quickly and provides information on how they are installed.



I find this thermistor on the circuit board of a Leica R3 ELECTRONIC as a spare part most quickly in its original position.


Seize opportunities to get spare parts

If a defective camera or individual parts are offered at reasonable prices, I take them. You can use everything, often for the next project.


Respect for every single part

Nothing is made in its original form anymore, every single part contains engineering knowledge, creativity and work. Therefore, one part is as good as a whole camera and this is how I treat my spare parts.


+++

All information provided without guarantee and use at your own risk.

If I were to work with just a few cameras on a regular basis, I would have to consider dismantling and creating a storage system for the removed parts.

This would allow them to be accessed quickly when needed.

But you would have to work on it regularly to be able to correctly assign the many individual parts.

How do you organize this?

I don't organize my stock of individual parts or spare parts dispenser devices, all that stores in 50 IKEA medium size plastic boxes an 10 big ones.
As I have to do repairs for my living the time to find a replacement item is fortunately paid by my customers.