M8 rangefinder realignment help needed

[Ben Z]

There's an old story about the guy who calls the furnace repairman to come out at 3AM in the dead of winter. When he gets there he walks around the furnace stroking his chin, then pulls out a hammer and gives the boiler three light taps. The furnace starts working, and the repairman presents the customer with a bill for $400.75. The customer is hopping mad and demands to know what possibly justifies such an obscene bill for three little hammer taps. The repairman replies, "The hammer taps are $0.25 apiece. The $400 is for knowing where, how many times, and how hard to tap."

I don't find any of the rangefinder adjustments difficult. I didn't find it difficult to mill (aka, negative shim) my front-focusing 135 Tele-Elmar. But someone else might find it not only difficult to do, but perhaps end up with a more expensive repair. All I can say is, think carefully and honestly assess your manual dexterity before you jump in.

 

[jaapv]

I paid 25 Euro for a vertical adjustment which took ten minutes. And a glass of wine whilst I waited. The prices of 100 USD upwards mentioned here are gouging, plain and simple.

The technique:
1. Remove the dot by working it with two toothpicks against the letters
2. Put a miniscule drop of acetone on the glob of glue fixing the adjustment fork to soften it. Don't get acetone all over the rest of the rangefinder!
3. Focus on a distant object
4. Insert the tool to engage with the hole and the fork
5. Looking through the viewfinder twist in small increments until adjusted
6. When correct leave the fixing glue to harden a few minutes
7. Stick the dot on again

 

[jaapv]

Go carefully and don't strip the head of the adjustment screw.

It is not a screw....

 

[Adrian Nasti]

Bloody Hell! I just got the repair quote back and it's $300 locally so I rang a repairer in Melbourne and they said $200-250. I'm confident the rangefinder is accurate horizontally so I think I'll just buy the $60 tool off eBay and have a crack myself.

Before I start hucking in, has anyone heard of any horror stories regarding DIY rangefinder vertical realignment?

Just out of interest who gave you those two quotes?

Regards

 

[defektive]

Just out of interest who gave you those two quotes?

Regards

The cheaper one was camera clinic in Melbourne and the other was Walch optics in Hobart. I should qualify the $300 by the way, as Walch said it would cost no more than that and it may cost less. I'm just not prepared to take the chance that it may cost that much.

 

[defektive]

Many thanks to all who gave assistance in this matter. I have fixed it myself thanks to the directions of jaapv and the ebay link for the tool provided by semordnilap. A grand total of $60 for the tool and a bit of patience is all it took.

Regards,
Sam

 

[tjkoko]

What has been realigned??

What has been realigned??

And so with this adjustment, what's realigned? Is it the sensor? Has the tilt of the sensor changed due to the body's having sustained a 'hard knock'?