What did you fix today?

[agfarapid]

A friend gave me a pile of odds and ends. Found a Canon 102 speedlight (circa 1970?). Battery terminals horribly corroded. Used some Liquid Wrench (tm) and a screwdriver and scrapped the mess away. Result-- one perfectly working non-auto speedlight. I'll probably use it on my M3 when I need a small, simple flash unit.

[Greg Heath]

Tore down and completely rebuilt a Mamiya 127mm lens and shutter. Works great.

Repaired a Rolleicord II Compur Shutter Timing escapement gearset and flat spring. Now to reinstall and set...that's tomorrow.

I can't wait to get this running again. It's been 6 months.

Greg

[mdarnton]

I tore apart my 28/2 Kinon and relubed the helicals. In the process, I found out why they have the rep for oil on the blades (which mine doesn't)--the auto diaphram mechanism just inside the mount, running the lever that interfaces with the camera's stop-down mechanism and runs on a circle of ball bearings--was absolutely sloppy wet with oil, which was running all over the inside of the lens in places it didn't belong (and which I cleaned out). Now it works great!

[jnanian]

just retimed my graflex slr
didn't really fix it, just fixed the speeds ...

[dehk]

Rebuilding a Contaflex inside out for the most of the week. Its still in many pieces waiting for assemble.

[polymerase]

I attempted to fix my Hasselblad Distagon 40mm f/4 "C" lens focusing issue, but failed... Now I'm trying to fix my lack of posts so I can start a thread here with more details..

[Steve Smith]

A Balda Super Baldax.

Cleaned up the shutter and sparingly lubricated anything which looked like it needed it. The shutter was taking about five seconds to close regardless of setting due to oil on the blades. It now seems to run perfectly.

This is the first time I have attempted a clean out and re-lubrication of a shutter. My previous attempts at cleaning only have had limited success. It took me a long time to work out how to put back the ring which adjusts the shutter speeds and once it was all back together I was surprised at how easily and smoothly this ring turns. So much so that at first I thought I had not done it correctly and it wasn't engaging on anything. However, all speeds appear to be correct.

The arrangement to lock the folding mechanism in place so it can't be folded up when focused anywhere but infinity needed some re-alignment and the viewfinder and rangefinder needed fifty years worth of dust cleaning from them.

I also had a look at the overly complex auto spacing wind on mechanism. I was trying to see if I could simplify it and just use the red window to align the frame numbers but I ended up putting it back together as intended. These mechanisms are first turned the wrong way until they stop then turned the right way, also until they stop. The wrong way turn engages a drive pin at a different place for each frame to compensate for the gradual buildup of film on the spool and the correct rotation advances the film an amount pre-determined by the pin position. However it tends to stop too early so frames overlap. I have read that it is because the spool diameter is smaller now than it was fifty years ago and some people put tape on the spool to increas its size. I think I will just open the window and wind it on a bit to the next number.

It is now ready to test.

This camera came from an old chap who lived at the retirement home my wife used to work at. She brought it home for me to look at as it was not working. I lent him a 6x6 Zeiss folder to use whilst I had his camera but it turns out that he has now moved several hundred miles away to be closer to his family so we have ended up in possession of each others cameras. If the family ever get in touch, I will gladly give it back but until then, I will get some use out of it on his behalf.


Steve.

[Maris]

Two Tachihara 45GF cameras with pinholed bellows made light tight. Running 3M #850 1" wide black bellows repair tape down the length of all four corners of fully stretched bellows did the trick. Re-pleating the bellows is easy but tedious. Should be good for another 20 years!

[paul_c5x4]

Took the F-stop scale off a 1950's Compur shutter as the numbers were difficult to see. Soaked the old paint off in thinners and cleaned out the crud in the engraved lines & numbers. Wiped some white enamel paint over to fill in the afore mentioned lines and numbers and left to dry. After giving the scale a quick rub down with very fine wet & dry, it got a 30 second dunk in KRST. Having giving it a thorough wash and left to dry, the KRST has turned the brass a satin black which sets off the white numbers quite nicely - Could probably do with a further treatment in KRST and a thin coat of lacquer..

[Sirius Glass]

A couple of weeks ago, my GPS tried to commit suicide by leaping off the dashboard not once but twice. The second time it succeeded. The touch screen was smashed. I was able to locate a replacement touch screen on the internet. I could not figure out how to open the case once I got the torx screws out. I could not find a repair manual. One of the IT people at work suggested that I try YouTube. In five minutes I found a video that clearly showed how to open the case. Tonight I repaired the GPS on the first try.

Steve