looking for info on taking lenses apart?

[chris91387]

hello all,

for some reason i have a desire to pick up some old nikon mount lenses and take them apart to play around with them and "experiment".

anyone know of a good place to start on information about how to do this or do i just get some jewelers tools and start unscrewing things?

thanks,
chris

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

Taking old lenses apart is dead simple.

No worries.

Reassembling them is a bit trickier.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

Look for the Thomas Tomosy book on Nikon camera service.

 

[Dunk]

Look for the Thomas Tomosy book on Nikon camera service.

+1


... and be prepared to make some tools.

Cheers

dunk

 

[RichA]

hello all,

for some reason i have a desire to pick up some old nikon mount lenses and take them apart to play around with them and "experiment".

anyone know of a good place to start on information about how to do this or do i just get some jewelers tools and start unscrewing things?

thanks,
chris

At a minimum, you need jeweller's screwdrivers (decent ones, not the Walmart $5 junk) and a retaining ring remover (like a wide-spaced, two-bladed flat screw driver that also comes with round, pointed blades) they cost about $40 from specialty tool houses. Acetone and varsol for cleaning grease (be careful with it around paint/plastic) and windex (most old coatings are mag-fluoride and windex is harmless to them) for lenses. A good pair of tweezers is also helpful. Plus, grease to replace what you removed. Thick consistency lithium is good as it is relatively insensitive to temperature changes.

 

[Daan]

http://www.pentax-manuals.com/repairs.htm

this site provides information on how to take apart jupiter lenses, maybe it will help you with nikon lenses to.

 

[wjlapier]

I had an extra Nikkor 50/2 lens I took apart for pretty much the same reason you did. When I removed the f mount and a few other things, about 1000 ballbearings spilled all over the place! The lens is now a loupe for viewing slides, but lesson learned.

In the last two days I disassembled two Cine-Kodak lenses to get them to focus again. Seller said the the focus was frozen and so figured I might get a decent lens for cheap if I could fix it, and maybe learn something. Old grease turned to glue was all is was. And one lens was modified to focus only at infinity and was secured with a screw. Remove the screw ( it was hidden under an adapter ) and voila, lens focus ring not frozen, but still needed the old grease removed. I haven't gone so far as to remove elements, but I might if I find a reason to and it won't cost me to much.