What did you fix today? (part 2)

[Bill Burk]

One very grimy Pentax KM... My sister-in-law's camera, given to me by my brother-in-law at Thanksgiving. Going to a party at their ranch tomorrow and seriously thinking about giving it back to her.

Insides were clean (nobody ever touched the mirror). Replaced the light trap seals and tightened the front of the lens which was falling off. Meter's not responding to light, but battery connection is good (needle rises slightly with battery in) and "battery check" (needle jumps up at certain ASA/Shutter speeds) works. Not using in-camera meters these days anyways so not going to try to fix meter (unless it's easy and someone knows how).

I decided the camera looks too cool with the patina, so I cleaned just a little and tried to keep the look.

 

[Bill Burk]

My wife picked up on the vibe too... my sister-in-law made a funny face when she said it was her old camera... (as if he should have asked her first before giving it away).

My wife also made that same funny face when I told her I liked the grimy look.

The meter started working, guess the ASA resistor was just a little dirty.

So back to the rag and towel... to finish the cleanup...

 

[Bill Burk]

Dang the meter keeps kicking in and out for no apparent reason. Battery check always works...

 

[Bill Burk]

Narrowed it down to the baseplate... tapping the baseplate would make the meter work intermittently.

Then it occurred to me... what kind of electrical connection would be intermittent and would make/break by tapping on the baseplate?

Even though the battery compartment was clean, the solder joint looked a bit white from what might be corrosion.

So I resoldered it and now the meter seems reliable.

 

[Helios 1984]

Today I did the light seals on my new Praktica L, I used wool for the door's slots and also added extra stripes of open-cell foam to the inside of the door and the hinge. I also adjusted the latch mechanism and re-engaged the frame counter's mechanism.

 

[nosmok]

Fixed a new to me Bantam Special-- it wasn't closing right. A little careful looking showed that the focus knob was fouling on the distance pointer, likely because of a missing washer or spacer between the sliding arms that hold the lens standard, and a missing screw to hold it all together. Dipped into the miscellaneous parts bucket, found a likely looking washer and after some tsuris, a screw that would work. Put it all together, tightened it down and it worked. Unfortunately the test roll revealed some pinholes in the bellows that I have to hunt down. Always something, ain't it?

 

[onre]

A FED-2 wouldn't let me rewind the film. The rewind actuator knob just rotated in place without doing anything, and there was a rattling sound from inside when shaking the camera. Turned out that the screw had somehow become undone. I put it back on and cleaned the usual dried lubricants. Now the body works just fine. I have no idea how long this one has been broken. It looks like it was hardly used. It has the collapsible FED lens and is probably from around 1958.

 

[EdSawyer]

I am currently working on stripping the leather off a Graflex RB Super-D. It's a huge pain in the ass, hide glue bonding leather to mahogany is not easy to remove. (Lift-Off #2 spray helps some but still much scraping required). I've gotten most of it off and now proceed to sanding and refinishing the bare-wood body. I'll probably respray the inside flat black too. Later I'll convert it to Graflok back and probably add a prism viewfinder on top.

I did save the leather, it's mostly all in one piece, might be useful for a pattern for someone if they wanted to recreate the leather covering for these cameras. (maybe a full-size image scan of it on a flatbed scanner might be useful for someone?)

These cameras are fairly simple to strip down, I may document the reassembly with photos since I couldn't find anywhere that detailed how to remove the rollers and shutter curtain, for example. (you have to remove the inner block/bracket pieces, then they eventually are able to be tilted and removed, if anyone is searching for this info.)

 

[Brian Legge]

Took apart an Elmar-C 90mm/4 with bunch of lens fog and cleaned the elements. It still has a bit of dust between elements but is much better than it was previously.

 

[DWThomas]

Today, celebrating the warranty repair on my 2nd eye (cataracts), I slipped on some +3 readers and replaced the light seals in my Canon A-1, which were starting to appear a bit dubious. That went well enough that whilst I had the tools, material and good lighting at hand, I also did the AE-1 inherited from my Dad. It really needed it, including the mirror bumper.

I anticipate using the A-1 next weekend if all goes according to plan. Don't shoot much 35mm, but picked up some of the 400TMax stuff to see if it's as miraculous as claimed (and need not worry about wrapper offset with 35mm!)

 

[viridari]

Dim rangefinder patch on my Olympus XA. I wanted to take it on some upcoming international travel, but the dim focusing patch was really impractical. Fixed in seconds with a chip of paper adhered to the viewfinder. Next stop: London.

 

[John_Nikon_F]

Converted a 50/2 Nikkor-HC to AI on Friday night. About a 5 minute job, since I had the factory kit handy. That said, took me another 45 minutes to fnd the modified 9/64" slotted screwdriver (profile of screwdriver shaved down to fit the thin slot on older Nikkor lens mount mounting screws).

The resultant AI'd 50/2, mounted to my F:


-J

 

[EdColorado]

Picked up a broken Sekonic L-508 Cine meter that arrived today. Battery leakage had corroded the positive battery contact to the point of it separating from the circuit board. I wound a new coil of wire for the battery contact (solid core lawn sprinkler control wire) and soldered it to the stub sticking up off the circuit board. It ain't pretty, but it works!

Now I just have to learn how to operate this thing.

 

[OeT]

I made some film spacers for my Unicolor Drum in my 3d printer.
My first four negatives got ruined when they moved around in the drum.

I uploaded them in my thingiverse in case someone else need a couple of them
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2067606

 

[removed account4]

i fixed a jacket, with cotton thread and a needle.

 

[EdColorado]

I had this CZJ 80mm f2.8 with an Exacta mount that was frozen solid. I don't know what the East Germans used for grease back then, but it sure does harden up over time. Anyhow, to get it apart I first had to soak it in naphtha overnight. I got it all cleaned up and I thought back together OK (I slipped when unwinding the helicoid and couldn't mark the separation point) but found it focused well past infinity. I checked it against the film plane and found it was focusing just fine so the viewfinder was off.
Exaktas...(this is a Varex VX) to adjust focus on the viewfinder I found that the mirror is supposed to be adjusted, and that's done by bending the little tab that holds it down until you press the shutter. Simple, but fiddly. I don't remember this thing producing soft results, but I'm looking forward to running some film through it tomorrow to see how much its improved.

 

[John_Nikon_F]

Last week, received six Nikkormat bodies in various stages of disrepair.

1) Nikomat EL - needs a rewind crank assembly, extraction of the rewind shaft, and refoaming. Otherwise good to go. Letting a friend have it as a project.

2) Nikkormat FT - needs nameplate; was a body I received in one of those KEH Nikkormat grab boxes. Once nameplate is procured and installed, I'll send it in for refoaming, then put it into service, probably with an earlier 50/2 Nikkor-H hanging off the front. I might also consider putting an FT3 mirror box on the chassis, so I can have an oddball Nikkormat FTn/FT3 hybrid, based on an FT chassis.

3) Nikomat FTn - when I received this body originally, it was missing parts and non-functional. This time around, figured I'd see what was up with it. Removed the baseplate. Looked pristine underneath, so it likely had been serviced recently, but, that didn't fix it. Popped in a battery to see if it worked. Meter did turn on and worked. Somewhat erratic and one cell was dead. But, it was functional. Advance mechanism, however, did not seem to work. Got the shutter cocked manually, along with the mirror box. Shutter release button didn't actuate the shutter, though. Started tearing it down. Pulled the mirror box. Self-timer started running. Got almost to the end of its cycle, then hung up. Helped it along, and the shutter fired. Cocked it again, and set it to various speeds. Seemed to fire normally. So, have a spare Copal Square S shutter. Removed everything useful, then chucked the remains.

4) Nikkormat FTn - Like the EL, not a camera I owned previously. Mechanically fine. Meter seemed weak, but smooth, and the foam was shot. Noticed that the contacts in the battery chamber were a little crusty. Cleaned them up after the refoam job was done. Both cells seem to be dead, but, again, meter is smooth, provided you set the ASA scale to 12. Probably going to go ahead and replace the cells and put it into service as a Nikomat FTn with the later cosmetics, which do make the camera more comfortable to use.

5) Nikomat FTn (black) - originally purchased this camera in 2009. Meter was erratic, but accurate. Used it as a donor for cosmetic parts for another FTn I'd owned at the time, then donated it to Camera Clinic, where it sat for a few years. Tried it again and one of the cells is dead. Meter also very erratic now. Took it apart, thinking I'd use it as a parts body. Eventually decided to use the cosmetic pieces from body #3 to make it somewhat decent looking. Passing it onto Ralph Javins, so he can fix it up and use it, if he wants.

6) Nikkormat FT3 - another KEH grab box camera. When I got it, meter was erratic, advance mechanism was slow, bad foam, and the shutter sometimes didn't fire. While it was at the Camera Clinic, they apparently fixed the meter. But gave up on the other issues. At this time, meter's good, foam's good, and the shutter fires reliably. Discovered that the top cover had a nice dent where the shutter release button is. Attached my AR-2 and gently persuaded it back to its normal position. That fixed it. I'll be sending it in to have the advance mechanism looked at and a J screen installed. Pulled the latter from body #3.

-J

 

[John_Nikon_F]

And, yesterday, another one arrived. Have one more on its way.

Black FTn that had some impact damage around the eyepiece area and had been repainted in spots. Used a lot of the parts from camera #5 that I took off when I converted that camera to chrome to fix this one. Looks better, but is now a mid-series FTn, so I went ahead and put the all-chrome advance and self-timer levers on it. Going to have the meter worked on (cells are good, but, the shutter speed ring is shorting out against the ring resistor when you move it) and the body refoamed. Probably swap the A screen for a J screen.

The one that's headed here is a parts body for #6. Chrome FT3 that got dropped with a lens on it, shearing the meter coupling ring, shutter speed ring, and lens mount off. Supposedly was good working beforehand, so I might source some stuff from Pacific Rim and turn it into an FT2.

-J

 

[Mr_Flibble]

Over the weekend I've reassembled two broken Perfex Fifty-Five cameras into one working one.
Dead Link Removed

Dressed it up in a nice Aki-Asahi "Lizard" skin

 

[nosmok]

Mocked up a cardboard lens board for my Vidax to test an APO-sironar N I just got on it. Worked perfectly! Will probably be the regular lens on this old beast!

 

[Nick Merritt]

I came across a Konica C35 I'd forgotten I had -- probably because, as I immediately discovered when checking it out, the frame counter did not reset. Removed the top cover (easy) and fiddled with the counter mechanism and it came back to life. It might have gotten stuck because the locknut under the wind lever was tightened down too hard. In any event, it works fine now, and with the correct 675 mercury in it, the meter seems dead on.

I will need to attend to light seals, certainly the big one at the bottom of the back door. Still light-tight I think, but it's a mess.

 

[Helios 1984]

I had to disassemble my Tessar 50mm, the aperture blades were sticky. Let's hope that I did not missed too many shots : /

 

[John_Nikon_F]

3-4 days ago, the parts FT3 arrived. Pulled the nameplate and put that onto the FT3 I already had. Then, I remembered that I still had those two Nikomat FTn bodies lying around. First time, took the mirror box from the chrome parts body. Swapped it in. Everything synched up and the shutter worked along with the mirror. But, while trying to reinstall the focusing screen assembly, wound up breaking the string for the shutter speed index strip. That wouldn't do. Next evening (Tuesday), I grabbed the black FTn that I turned into a "panda" camera. Pulled all the parts necessary to remove the mirror box without removing the prism, focusing screen, etc. Removed it. Swapped it into the FT3 chassis.



The result. Looks like an FT2 with FTn nameplate and all-metal advance/self-timer levers. Also has the early FT series mirror box rattle, so it sounds like a pre-42xxxxx serial FTn when fired. I have a black baseplate. Just need to find a black top cover and an undamaged black Nikomat FTn nameplate (may use a black Nikkormat FTn plate - have one that's clean). Leatherette needs to be glued down. Will do that once I have an extra late FTn rewind-side piece - The FT3 piece is cut for the black lens release button surround, which is larger.

-J

 

[EdColorado]

Been pretty busy fixing stuff lately. This was today's project. Ricoh 500 with a stuck shutter. Just needed a good cleaning and everything works fine. I read that these were mid level cameras in their day. I'm curious to see how it shoots.

 

[John Koehrer]

Got a Gitzo CF tripod that had remnants of years old yuck from what used to be velcro. That kept me out
of trouble for a while.