What did you fix today? (part 2)

Helios 1984 · Apr 12, 2019

Today, I've fixed this little flash which I received for free with a bunch of other free stuff. I've cleaned acid residues inside the battery chamber and replaced a battery contact plate. It works perfectly now.

Helios 1984: 1
Landfield: 0

hartacus · Apr 15, 2019

Helios 1984 said:
Today, I've fixed this little flash which I received for free with a bunch of other free stuff. I've cleaned acid residues inside the battery chamber and replaced a battery contact plate. It works perfectly now.

Nice! Out of curiosity, what method did you use to clean the acid residues?

Helios 1984 · Apr 15, 2019

hartacus said:
Nice! Out of curiosity, what method did you use to clean the acid residues?

I just scraped off the residues with a flat precision screwdriver and then used cotton buds with isopropyl alcohol 90% to wipe the leftover. Nothing fancy heh. As for the contact plate, I used metal scavenged from a Polaroid pack and glued it with Shoe Goo.

PS: Have a good day down under.

Pentode · Apr 15, 2019

Today I finally got around to cutting that annoying little tab off of my five Kindermann reels. I've been meaning to do it for months.

hartacus said:
Nice! Out of curiosity, what method did you use to clean the acid residues?

Since alkaline batteries are not actually acid but, well... alkaline, common household white vinegar is a good way to neutralize the residue when batteries leak. A paste of baking soda and water will also work well.

Helios 1984 · Apr 15, 2019

Pentode said:
Today I finally got around to cutting that annoying little tab off of my five Kindermann reels. I've been meaning to do it for months.
Since alkaline batteries are not actually acid but, well... alkaline, common household white vinegar is a good way to neutralize the residue when batteries leak. A paste of baking soda and water will also work well.

Thanks for the tips. I just re-wipe the battery chamber with a cotton bud and white vinegar, then again with isopropyl.

hartacus · Apr 17, 2019

Helios 1984 said:
I just scraped off the residues with a flat precision screwdriver and then used cotton buds with isopropyl alcohol 90% to wipe the leftover. Nothing fancy heh. As for the contact plate, I used metal scavenged from a Polaroid pack and glued it with Shoe Goo.

Pentode said:
Since alkaline batteries are not actually acid but, well... alkaline, common household white vinegar is a good way to neutralize the residue when batteries leak. A paste of baking soda and water will also work well.

Good tips, thanks I have a couple of cheap old flashes with crusted-in batteries, can't remember the brands but I think they're very 70s-80s vertical style electronic units, might give the vinegar a go sometime. Tho those batteries would almost certainly be from before the mercury reduction. And I also have some Wii controllers that fell victim to a bad batch of copper-tops (every battery from that pack leaked well before its use by date) which has since strongly influenced my purchasing decisions.

Helios 1984 said:
PS: Have a good day down under.

Cheers! My first kid was just born so I'm basically a zombie right now. Spending lots of time behind cameras rather than inside them!

Helios 1984 · Apr 17, 2019

hartacus said:
Good tips, thanks I have a couple of cheap old flashes with crusted-in batteries, can't remember the brands but I think they're very 70s-80s vertical style electronic units, might give the vinegar a go sometime. Tho those batteries would almost certainly be from before the mercury reduction. And I also have some Wii controllers that fell victim to a bad batch of copper-tops (every battery from that pack leaked well before its use by date) which has since strongly influenced my purchasing decisions.

Cheers! My first kid was just born so I'm basically a zombie right now. Spending lots of time behind cameras rather than inside them!

Congratulation, Dad !

Jojje · Apr 27, 2019

I glued the loose rangefinder lens of my 1950's Mamiya-6 back to its proper place. Used stuff familiar to scale modellers worthy its name: Micro Kristal Klear. Brilliant!

MattiS · Apr 27, 2019

I got a NOS Horizon 202 this week. It seems that the camera was sick from travelling, the shutter got stuck at the second release. An hour of fiddling here and there later it was alive and running.

MattiS · Apr 27, 2019

Working on my „Darkroom Racer“ right now.

Regards, Matti

Helios 1984 · May 3, 2019

I've spent much of the afternoon sewing a lining for the insert of my camera bag. Not a Chanel but I'm quite pleased with this project and it will serve the purpose.

mshchem · May 4, 2019

I put improved light sealing on my darkroom door. Put in a new doorknob ( bath and bedroom type) that allows me to lock the door to prevent whoops.

MattiS · May 4, 2019

Yesterday I got an exercising mat that I cut to press-fit in the window reveal. Hooked up my darkroom lights temporarily, seems it works out fine. Looking forward for the first print made at home.

hartacus · Jun 7, 2019

Today I fixed the driver's door on my Mazda 6. There is a spring in the door latch that is prone to breaking, and when it breaks, you can't open the door from inside or outside. Fantastic design.

More interestingly, the other day I did the capacitor fix on this Minolta X-9. I had to learn how to solder to do this, and when I first tested it with batteries from my Minolta XE-5 it didn't work at all. I thought I'd fried it. Then I remembered that I had some spare fresh batteries and put those in - shutter works, winder winds, all good. This is the first camera that I have resurrected from a non-working state rather than just improving its function, so even though it's a relatively basic fix I'm pretty pleased.

(That lens is a project for another time. This camera and two Tamron lenses came to me from a shed and they kind of look like it.)

Pentode · Jun 7, 2019

I'm not sure if this is a fix or a modification, but I'm cutting vents in an old Tiffen Series VII lens hood so I can use it on a rangefinder more comfortably.
I spent a couple of hours in the machine shop at work building a jig that will hold the lens hood securely so the milling machine doesn't tear the thin aluminum to pieces when I cut the vents.
The actual cutting of the vents will happen at some later date because it was getting late and I was hungry, but building the clamping jig was the hard part and that's done.

Pentode · Jun 12, 2019

Today I tightened the focus scale indicator ring that was loose on my Rokkor 75-200/4.5 zoom. The focus was working fine but the indicator ring was spinning freely as I shot five rolls of film today and it was driving me crazy. I addressed the issue the minute I got home.

hartacus · Jun 13, 2019

Today I pulled the top plate off the Minolta X-9, just to figure out how. I was prompted to do this by some intermittent slowness of the shutter button. I only took the top of the button off and didn't dig any deeper, but the activity seems to have sorted out whatever dust or tarnish was preventing it from working reliably, because it's much better now.

Ian Grant · Jun 13, 2019

Back in 2016 I bought an MPP MicroTechnical MkIII this is a British camera based on the WWII Linhof Technika, it was cheap £70 and came with most of a second camera.

The bits sat in a box until Tuesday afternoon. I decided to firts re-cover the body in a dark blue material.

Then I re-assembled it making the missing track linkages. I still need to fit the fittings for the carrying strap but as one's missing will wait until I find or make something. I decided not to refit the Range-finder as I never use them. There's also a finder sight to repaint and fit on the top but I don't have the optional wire finder.

The restored MkIII, the original MkIII, and a MkVII.

Ian

Sirius Glass · Jun 13, 2019

I selenium toned some under developed negatives today.

John51 · Jun 22, 2019

I modded my Rayco timer to power a safelight and turn it off when the enlarger is on.

Helios 1984 · Jun 26, 2019

Hi guys, I’m currently trying to fix an Instamatic 714 which fires only at 1/30 f/2.8. I was thrilled when I received it because it looked very clean but soon found out that the battery power was going nowhere. I figured there was probably corrosion/verdigris somewhere, and I was right. Now I’m stuck because the part bellow looks pretty much done... any advice would be welcomed.

Kino · Jun 26, 2019

This looks like a potentiometer. It also appears one lead is detached. You could probably hit it with some detoxit or other aerosol electronics cleaner and re-soldier it back in place.

When you clean it, be sure to note it's position (the dimple in the metal band that runs around the edge of the resistance band) and return it to the same position.

Worth a shot...

Helios 1984 · Jun 27, 2019

Kino said:
This looks like a potentiometer. It also appears one lead is detached. You could probably hit it with some detoxit or other aerosol electronics cleaner and re-soldier it back in place.

When you clean it, be sure to note it's position (the dimple in the metal band that runs around the edge of the resistance band) and return it to the same position.

Worth a shot...

Thanks for the reply. As I started to brush off the layer of calcium & verdigris, the part with the metal band fell off (Aaaah!). The good news is that I was able to disassemble the rest and clean all the parts. I was expecting that thing to be corroded and brittle, but the metal is still good. There’s hope.

John51 · Jun 27, 2019

Measure the resistance between both ends and look for an equivalent trimmer pot on the bay:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Carbon-V...hash=item3d1e5d0c26:m:m_4sbkyUOdH3_Q_C5Wpx48A

Helios 1984 · Jun 27, 2019

John51 said:
Measure the resistance between both ends and look for an equivalent trimmer pot on the bay:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Carbon-V...hash=item3d1e5d0c26:m:m_4sbkyUOdH3_Q_C5Wpx48A

Thanks for the reply, John. I'll definitively do that.

What did you fix today? (part 2)

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