Trouble with my polaroid back and type 55

[jeffreyg]

Tom,
I just checked my Polaroid 545 and the "catch" that needs tweeking is elevated in "L" and depressed in "P" but it is also depressed when "R" is pushed in. It might be possible that the "R" lever is bent or somewhat stuck in the depressed position as it does not take much movement to cause the catch to be depressed. If that is not the case try bending it up as has been suggested being sure to havethe lever in the "L" position. Good luck.
Jeff

[KenS]

Tom....

There was a time when I bought 55PN by the case....

On a few occasions (over all these years) I ran into a similar problem.

Please check (closely) the 'insert-able' end of your polaroid holder just to make sure that one of the metal clips from a previous
envelope has not come off and been retained "down there"... preventing an accurate grip on the newly inserted film such that
pulling the 'cover envelope' out ready for exposure only to find that the sheet of film is not being "retained" in the holder.

You may have to really LOOK closely.. its is not that 'easy' to see that the clip that has been 'locked' within the holder. One of the 'early'
holders we used could be somewhat disassembled... but the one that is down in my darkroom seems to be 'riveted' and cannot be
opened. When it happened in that unit, a pair of 'fine' pointed pliers could grip the retained clip well enough to yank the sucker out.

Ken

[Anscojohn]

Thanks guys. We are all on the same page. So, it's not grabbing the film and pods when I pull on the two tabs.
So how does one Tweak this up. It's impossible to grab, I've even tried using a size zero screw-driver..?
Thank you again.

*****
Darn, I jsut don't remember. We had this problem on occasion with the MP-4 copy camera. And whatever tweaking we did fixed the problem--until the next time.

[Vaughn]

Ken's right -- I forgot about that one.

[Anscojohn]

Ken's right -- I forgot about that one.

Yep, that's it. And sometimes we had to pull the Polaroid back apart to get that bit of metal out. IIRC (obviously, not a given) the unit comes apart at the seams somehow. Cut me some slack though; it's been going on thirty years since I worked with the MP-4.

[flash26c]

http://www.skgrimes.com/about/545/index.htm I have had the same problem, actually, all the problems. I finally solved them about the same time the film was discontinued. I did buy a 545 pro that has a timer and TWO silver tabs to grab the film!

[dwdmguy]

Ken, good idea thank you. Checked. Nope. But would have made sense.

Now, without the back on my 4x5 I placed a pola sheet into the holder and watch it go in. It clicked and in a bit I'll attach it when I'm ready and see if the env pulls off leaving the film. (Can't do that now or I'll loose the sheet and you guys know how rare these are now)

Thank you SO much and I'll report back;