Had to 'modify' my Ricoh FF-70

[muf]

This really peed me off to be fair. The serial number plate fell off the bottom of the camera so I dabbed a little superglue on and put it back. Then put in to one side and left it. Next morning got up and thought about taking it out for a spin. The serial plate was still attached so I was happy, until I flicked the switch to open the spring loaded lens cover. Nothing. Wouldn't open. Did a little 'assistance' i.e pushed it with my finger but best I could get was half open and it wouldn't budge. So I'm now thinking about the glue. I remembered there is a little cut out slot under the serial plate and deduced when I pushed the plate in place that some surplus glue must have squoze into the camera through the cut out and jammed the mechanics of the lens cover.

I had to take the camera apart and remove the lens cover plate completely. I've put it back together and it appears to be working ok. The only problem being that the little dot icon is flashing constantly now indicating the lens cover is open. Yeah, I know it is. There's no lens cover any more!

What I can't get my head around is why the heck is there a slot in the camera under that serial plate? I mean, it serves no purpose other than to let surplus glue jam up the lens cover mechanism. Why didn't Ricoh just use a solid piece of plastic for the base plate.

It's still very noisy though but just goes to show that one little wrong move and 'bam!' camera can be hosed for good!!!

On the lookout for a case now...

Paul

 

[shadowfox]

Let me commiserate with another tale of being glued (rhymes with screwed).
A nice looking Graflex 22 came home with me, along with a nifty looking metal hood (not original, but it looks darn good). The tab that holds the red windows cover is gone, in its place, a hole.

So I took a piece of resin and thinking that I can glue it to the hole. Guess what, the glue seeped into the hole and the next morning, bye-bye red window, the cover is glued in place solid, never to be opened again.

Anyone knows what can dissolve gorilla glue?

 

[Greyscale]

Let me commiserate with another tale of being glued (rhymes with screwed).
A nice looking Graflex 22 came home with me, along with a nifty looking metal hood (not original, but it looks darn good). The tab that holds the red windows cover is gone, in its place, a hole.

So I took a piece of resin and thinking that I can glue it to the hole. Guess what, the glue seeped into the hole and the next morning, bye-bye red window, the cover is glued in place solid, never to be opened again.

Anyone knows what can dissolve gorilla glue?

I think that acetone will dissolve it.

I have a super-glue tale of woe myself. On my first ever camera repair, replacing the POD on a Yashica G Electro, I managed to glue the iris blades for the light meter aperture together. Acetone did remove the glue in this case, but I had to bend some parts back into their original shape.

 

[btgc]

On my first repair I opened Electro to replace POD. Putting pad in place I touched mask in front of CdS cell with superglue. Discovered this after I've put top cover back so I repeated sequnce again to free up mask.

It just happens.

 

[muf]

It's kind of comforting to know that I'm not alone! I've just been out today and ran a film through it. If it's working ok then at least it's only the lens cover that died. Was funny though, a load of seagulls on a jetty I was taking a piccy of took flight when the shutter tripped. Sure is about the noisiest camera I've ever heard.

Paul