R
ruben
Guest
I am opening a separated thread since what i am goint to concentrate on requires separated attention. In the former thread I concentrated in the lubrication, and raised the assumption that the real softening must come with the DIS-TENSIONING of the shutter curtains. Today I have made this trip too, and from that hard Kiev IIa with a somewhat hard shutter assembly, trqnsplanted from a Kiev 4m 1965, I obtained the final "butter" winding knob. Up to day, via lubrication, i further softened already soft Kievs. Today i softened a rather hard one.
The issue, besides the right cleaning and lubrication, is indeed in the curtains over-tension. But it is a bit more complex than I supposed. A bit but not more than that.
Since this is not going to be an How To Do It, and i will only outline the general logic of the issue, I think a disclaimer is not necessary.
But first let's start from the begining. Let's suppose you are holding a Kiev without film. If you wind very slow trying to feel what is going inside, you will notice two stages. A first rather soft, and a second much harder. At this later stage the camera is raising the curtains and you are battling against the springs that take care the curtains fall back with the firing.
Obviously, if your camera is not properly clean and lubricated, the first stage will be rather hard, and to this hardship the second stage hardship will add itself, not to speak about the case film is inside.
If your camera is properly clean and lubricated, the first stage should be absolutely smooth.
Now think about the following. If all gears of your camera should be clean and lubricated, since they dont work properly otherwise, is there any reason why the springs tensioning the curtains are to be excluded from cleaning and lubrication?
There is one from the point of view of a sloppy fixer: it is complicated, and requires speed recalibration, which itself requires specialized measuring equipment, and a lot of patience to deal with godamn tensioning screw, which is not the most user friendly device out there inside.
Now, if your camera is overall dirty, or with hardened grease, or unproperly lubricated, this will apply to the curtains springs as well, and you will have a hard winding knob too. And unpropper speeds too.
But on the contrary, if you clean and lube the curtain springs, then you will have to re-calibrate the shutter speeds, BUT WITH MUCH LESS TENSION REQUIRED to achieve the propper speeds.
THIS LESS TENSION, after everything else is ok, IS WHAT WILL GIVE YOU THE SMOOTH WINDING KNOB THROUGH ALL THE WINDING PROCESS.
Now, as for what i have done today, I am not sure it is the propper way to clean and lubricate the springs, so I am not going to describe it, but it was a rather massive lubrication, followed by a speed recalibration (or curtain tensioning - which is the same) without any instrument to measure the propper speeds out of my eyes, brain and ears. and my general knowledge about how such and such a speed should look and sound.
But none of the above is important but to my specific camera. Small necessary adjustments will not contradict the principle, about where the hard winding problem is.
Cheers,
Ruben
PS,
How smooth is the winding of my prcessed Kiev iIa now ? By Fedka standards for such models.
The issue, besides the right cleaning and lubrication, is indeed in the curtains over-tension. But it is a bit more complex than I supposed. A bit but not more than that.
Since this is not going to be an How To Do It, and i will only outline the general logic of the issue, I think a disclaimer is not necessary.
But first let's start from the begining. Let's suppose you are holding a Kiev without film. If you wind very slow trying to feel what is going inside, you will notice two stages. A first rather soft, and a second much harder. At this later stage the camera is raising the curtains and you are battling against the springs that take care the curtains fall back with the firing.
Obviously, if your camera is not properly clean and lubricated, the first stage will be rather hard, and to this hardship the second stage hardship will add itself, not to speak about the case film is inside.
If your camera is properly clean and lubricated, the first stage should be absolutely smooth.
Now think about the following. If all gears of your camera should be clean and lubricated, since they dont work properly otherwise, is there any reason why the springs tensioning the curtains are to be excluded from cleaning and lubrication?
There is one from the point of view of a sloppy fixer: it is complicated, and requires speed recalibration, which itself requires specialized measuring equipment, and a lot of patience to deal with godamn tensioning screw, which is not the most user friendly device out there inside.
Now, if your camera is overall dirty, or with hardened grease, or unproperly lubricated, this will apply to the curtains springs as well, and you will have a hard winding knob too. And unpropper speeds too.
But on the contrary, if you clean and lube the curtain springs, then you will have to re-calibrate the shutter speeds, BUT WITH MUCH LESS TENSION REQUIRED to achieve the propper speeds.
THIS LESS TENSION, after everything else is ok, IS WHAT WILL GIVE YOU THE SMOOTH WINDING KNOB THROUGH ALL THE WINDING PROCESS.
Now, as for what i have done today, I am not sure it is the propper way to clean and lubricate the springs, so I am not going to describe it, but it was a rather massive lubrication, followed by a speed recalibration (or curtain tensioning - which is the same) without any instrument to measure the propper speeds out of my eyes, brain and ears. and my general knowledge about how such and such a speed should look and sound.
But none of the above is important but to my specific camera. Small necessary adjustments will not contradict the principle, about where the hard winding problem is.
Cheers,
Ruben
PS,
How smooth is the winding of my prcessed Kiev iIa now ? By Fedka standards for such models.
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