jnanian

when i bought my speed graphic it came with he camera. there was a 127 tominon on it
and the lens and shutter performed perfectly. over the years the shutter began to stick
and at one point the end of my shutter release got jammed inside the mechanism.
i am no shutter repair person, but i am foolish sometimes.
i have been known to take things apart not having any idea how to put them back together.
travel clocks ended up a pike of springs and gears, roller blind shutters somehow got put back correctly and even timed right.

i googled copal press shutter, hoping i would find something, and found nothing ... so i got my micro screw drivers out
and reading glasses and removed the front element, unscrewed the tiny almost invisible screw, removed the
thing that held the cover/plate on the shutter, and somehow removed the end of my release from the shutter.
i closed everything back up again and used the shutter for another couple of years.

a few days ago i had hoped to use it to photograph the side of a large building, the 127 was wide enough, and long enough
that it would have been the perfect match for my subject. i put the lens on the camera, and screwed in the release i had used
for the other lenses i was working with, and the shutter stopped working.
it opened and closed maybe once, and then remained open.

i got home and didn't bother with the lens or shutter for a few days, and last night on new year's eve i took the front
plate off and poked around as any foolhardy person would do. i put a little bit of lighter fluid on "stuff" .. i figured out
what piece was not moving back and put it "back" i moved things, i ran the shutter, and it kind of worked again ...
i closed it up and installed a release and it was stuck open again, oh well.

i left it over night someplace warm, and now, 18 hours later i decided to put the front element back in the lens. i was ok with
using it stuck open, as long as i could use the aperture i could use the lens on my speed graphic with the focal plane shutter, it would be fine ...

i put the element back on, and realized the shutter had closed ...
i put a shutter release in and it seemed to sort of work, it fired when i
release the shutter, instead of the way i remembered it always working ...
i searched around for another release and found one with a shorter throw, screwed it in ...
first into the focus-release ... it opened completely, and closed completely ...
then into the shutter ... i cycled through all the speeds, and it worked PERFECTLY ...

i will be keeping this short throw release with that lens for now on ... and label it " for 127 tominon ONLY "

i also noticed the world didn't end yet, so i will take both these events as good omens ... and look forward to a great 2012 -