Some tips on re-silvering and re-cementing a Leica M2 beamspiltter

[mooge]

It's out there, and cheaply enough if you avoid the big medical/lab suppliers...here's a link to an ebay listing (in Canada, of course). Enough to do dozens of prisms.
Cheers,
Brett

that's exactly what I bought. in the description, they mention xylene and it's a little misguiding-- there's no xylene required. It's good straight out of the bottle.

Good enough for dozens of prisms and presumably you can eat it too if you believe their description! it also sticks to your fingers like nobody's business. At least your fingers will smell nice though. (I can't get over how nice it smells, really).




Rick--
I started tinkering when I started photography; it was part of the appeal for sure. I guess I was 15? Started with a Pentax ME super (which still doesn't work) and Tomosy's book, which I found in the local library. Good stuff. The ME super only worked for a little while and the sticky bumper issue came back...




Thanks everyone for the comments! I really appreciate it.

 

[Rotarysmp]

Good on you for doing this. Great attitude. So far I have only pulled my beat up M2 far enough apart to reglue one of the light seals back into place. Respect

Please post a picture of your beat up M2.

 

[Ron (Netherlands)]

great work, thanks for posting...
maybe an alternative or short cut for a M3 beamsplitter: to use a halfmirror of a Z4...of course dimensions have to be checked...

 

[mooge]

My M2 looks like this (sort of, anyways):


That was taken right after I messed up the aluminum semi-silvering. Pulled the RF out of the chassis, covered the holes with Polaroid darkslide cardboard and masking tape (because that's how it's done) and stuck with the 12mm for a while.

Recent changes include some stickers and possible corrosion... and since the front side is the good side, it doesn't really look that bad.

Note the shoelace strap with two knots (I learned my lesson)!

I'm pretty sure a semi-silvered mirror can't be used-- you can't just glue that in between the beamsplitter prisms and not change the optical path.

 

[tomtofa]

Great work and write up, very clear - except for the alignment test in #10. I understand the real world test of tripping over a tent to check the prism's stability, but just how big a tent did you use? I'd hate to try this resilvering procedure and screw up at that point ;-)

Tom

 

[rick oleson]

If you don't have a suitable tent, you can make a usable substitute by laying a tarp over a rope stretched out at about mid-calf height.

 

[marzipan]

Epoxy

Epoxy

Great work! And it is not only you who is this crazy. Let me explain.

While travelling, my M2 fell off a table in Amsterdam. When I arrived in Paris the prism fell apart, leaving me with a black finder.

Back home I investigated my options (and my wallet) and decided for yet another DIY repair. I cleaned the 2 halves of the prism in an acetone bath, careful not to touch the silvering. I had no access to real materials (and I was in a hurry) so since it seemed that the real UV curing cement is really a kind of epoxy, I got some clear Araldite from the hardware store (2 part epoxy glue). Tested my theory by glueing glass pieces together, and since it looked completely clear if I used only a thin layer, I went ahead and did the prism. It worked! No bubbles, no dimming, no worse than before. The old silvering was not as good as on a new Leica but usable enough. This was in 2007 and I still use this M2 a lot. Having compared its finder to newish cameras in the store, I must say that it is quite OK but not perfect. But when possible, I would eventually like to replace the prism with a proper one to get that last inch of amazing clarity that good Leicas have.
But for a 0-budget DIY job it worked well🙂

 

[John Shriver]

I believe Leica does not sell piece parts for the M rangefinder assembly, they will only provide the entire assembly on an exchange basis (send the broken one back).

 

[kinoglass]

Canadian basalm is dangerous to handle

Canadian basalm is dangerous to handle

Please read safety precautions when handling Canadian balsam. It is no joke!

:angel:

 

[goat2017]

A Japanese camera service company (Kanto Camera) is providing the re-silvering service. But I believe many companies in US are able to do this simple job. My guess the main prism on Leica M2/M3 is in regular shape and could be easily made through reverse engineering. Someone with access to a lab should start a Kickstarter project for making the main prism.

 

[shawn]

Old thread but good writeup. This site has another writeup on tackling this on a M3.

https://garbugli.wordpress.com/2018/06/07/resilvering-the-leica-m3-beamsplitter/

Anyone else tried this?

Shawn