Close call with my Fed

[MrRanger]

Took my Fed 3 out today to get a little excercise. I had shot about 8 frames when I felt increasing resistance in the wind lever and then, the shutter wouldn't release. :bang:

I took it back into the house thinking all kinds of bad thoughts. I took off the back and lo and behold! - the film was wound around the winder shaft, not the takeup spool! I re-wound the film enough to get the film out from around the winder shaft and once I did that, I could now cock the shutter and get it to release. 😱

When I tried to re-thread the film, I noticed that the leader was too wide to fit iinto the takeup spool slots far enough to keep it from getting pulled out. I got the sissors out and trimed another 1/8" or so from the top edge of the leader and that worked great. I don't know if anyone else has had this problem, but for God's sake, make sure your film leader is firmly in you takeup spool slots!!!!! (I really scared myself - I thought the Red Fed was Dead!!!).

Mike 😀

 

[doubs43]

Film not threading properly in the take-up spool is very common. An easy means of eliminating the problem is to thread the film, making certain that the holes in the film edges engage the advance sproket teeth, and advance the film one time. It's easy to see if the film is being taken up properly by the spool. Then use the rewind crank to take up the slack in the film just until the film lies flat across the rails and the cassette no longer lies loosely in the resevoir but is being pulled down by the film tension. NOT TOO TIGHT, THOUGH!!

Close the back and advance the film. The rewind knob should turn, indicating that the film is being advanced properly.

Walker