I got my IIIc stepper!

Rob-F

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I bought this a couple months ago on eBay, then sent it right off to John Maddox, the guy who does all my LTM work. He just sent it back, freshly CLA'd and with a new set of shutter curtains. While it was out for service, I sent off to Luigi Cresenzi for a leather half-case. I have not shot with it yet--the weather out there is dismal--I wouldn't subject myself or the camera to it. I dressed it up with my 50mm collapsible Summicron for the shot.

John tells me it has the full set of IIIcK type bearings--it's just not marked as a K. He had an awful time with it. One of the shafts had an extra bearing ball that is not supposed to be there, and was causing things to bind up. And some shims that were supposed to be in one place had been transplanted to another place. He has it all sorted out. It is smooth as silk, and the shutter sounds perfect!
 

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Accidental Art

Accidental Art

When photographing my new IIIc, I forgot to raise the flash, triggering a long time exposure. I held it for a bit and then jiggled, resulting in this rather interesting bit of impromptu art!
 

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Congrats on the saving the 111c stepper. I like the artsy fartsy shot. I`ve looked like that on a few occasions, after a big night on the tiles.
 
One of the shafts had an extra bearing ball that is not supposed to be there, and was causing things to bind up. And some shims that were supposed to be in one place had been transplanted to another place.


Interesting. The shim misplacement one could understand but an extra ball bearing ? Did he say he found it in the top or bottom of the main shaft ?
 
Here is what he wrote (I copied and pasted it, as it was a bit long to remember):

". . . shims that should be installed under the film rewind assembly were installed under the film wind assembly. In another case, an extra bearing ball was installed at the bottom of the number one shutter curtain spring roller causing it to rotate slowly if at all. I have added various shims to the shutter mechanism to ensure proper end play and thus operation."

The serial number is 392427.
 
Very very kool Rob Congrats!

Yep, that's an ex-US Army camera, and in my opinion one of the BEST user/shooters made the 45' IIIC K (NON STAMP) *with "overkill" bearings* ~ hope you have great fun shooting with it, happy lenses that I like to use on one are the Nikkor HC f2/50 (Sonnar clone) the CZJ Sonnar T f1.5/50 and the Elmar f3.5/50

Enjoy!

Tom

ps: Does it have black or dark grey vulcanite? This period of production had both versions.
 
Rob,

The bottom bearing takes 10 balls, and looks kinda "short" by one - i.e. there is a lot of space between the balls. Could be someone was worried about this and added one more for luck?

These are an odd size too - 1.1mm (0.047"). On my K they looked a bit worn so I thought I would try some new ones and the nearest current size I could source was 1.2mm - I thought that small difference would just take up the slack of 60 years of wear. Wrong! I couldn't even get the shaft in to the bearing.

I think the boys in Wetzlar knew what they were doing alright.
 
Well, yes, but without a cage the space in the bottom race just looks too big, tempting to add another "just in case" perhaps?
 
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It's quite common that ball bearings have extra space, isn't it?

(And to think that it need filling up, as John says.) Well, yes, I think that must be what happened. I was lucky to happen across a Leica Tech expert enough to recognize the problem.

About a hundred years ago, as a traveling field engineer "expert" for Emerson Electric's Electronics and Space division, the guys at our remote sites used to taunt me with "an expert is any SOB from more than 50 miles out of town." Guess they were feeling defensive they couldn't fix it themselves.

I prefer this one: "An expert is someone who doesn't have to look it up in a book. They know it when they see it." That would describe John, my Leica technician. This saying is actually consistent with a thing we psychologists talk about: pattern recognition.

@Tom: thanks for all that info, and for helping me feel I have something really good. 🙂
 
Rob,

My favourite definition of an expert is:-

ex = past, or has been + spurt = a drip under pressure 😉

Enjoy your stepper, I have one and it's a great joy to use.
 
The "stepper" IIIc or "variety 1" IIIc are the best of the IIIc cameras, IMHO. I have an unmarked IIIcK with grey vulcanite (391xxx serial block) & 2 other IIIc "stepper" non-K with the black vulcanite (393xxx & 396xxx serial blocks). They can become very addictive, as Tom can attest too, in fact he helped me find the grey skinned camera & its older brother 396xxx.
 
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