Sticky Iris Shutters - Why ????

Ruben, you wrote;
"But in the last case I paid us19 for the camera and "Air Mail at $58", the package having been sent from Canada, and after heavy discussions about the mail cost. BTW, no sign of the real air mail price was on the package."

A Canonet mailed from Toronto to Israel comes up at 47.95$ estimated postage fee using Canada Post's online mailing service. If the camera was in Alberta or BC (another 2,000 miles further for delivery to Israel) it would be significantly higher.

I suggest you check your facts and the postage rates before you suggest someone is misrepresenting the mailing costs.

http://canadapost.ca/Personal/Tools/RC/NonDomestic.aspx
 
ruben said:
Does any of the dwellers here know what is going on ? Not only I am going mad but I am paying 15 - 45 dollaretas per camera and 35 additional hurting dollars to the US mail.

Cheers,
Ruben
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That is a very common problem with Canonets, kind of like stuck self-timers on Minolta Hi-Matics and "pad of death" problems with Yashica g-series rangefinders. In any Canonet I got on ebay, unless it was advertized as recently serviced or CLA'd, a sticky shutter is something I would expect to find.

That said, if the camera was advertized as working, I would expect to see the shutter opening and closing, even if the speeds were off.
 
ruben said:
Hi Greg and Hi ZeissFan

Upon your tech info I am trying on my own responsibility a kind of "war field bondage".

My main problem is that I don't want by any means to disassemble the lens compound beyond the necessary to put the glass parts out. This is definitive as I have jammed every other camera in which I went further.

During the last days, after disassembling the lens, I have poured in alcohol and it helped partially only for a few hours. I have poured more and more, with the same result.

But now, after hearing that these mechanisms work on the basis of oil, I have poured some oil and the shutter is still working for a longer time already.

So I guess my problem from now will be to clear as much oil as possible, by leaving the camera in different positions every time, cleaning the flowing out oil, and repeat the operation during long weeks.

If this "kitchinette" solution works..... hmmm a lot of folks will be happy.

Cheers,
Ruben

PS
As for the how do I treat the sellers, kindly be wise enough to understand that one attitude here posted doesn't embrace the whole of my history with the many sellers I have dealt with, even those from which I have got bad gear - perhaps in the same spirit that I have been wise enough to tell myself I don't know everything so let's hear other technical opinions, and changed here my most basic assumptions.

Can we stop this side issue now ?

Cheers,
Ruben

PS 2
Hi Valdemar,
I notice you are reading this thread now - how is going with your beatifull kid
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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Really, seriously, horribly bad idea Ruben!!!

Shutter blades have to be dry to work properly. Oil makes them stick together. You've just made the problem 1000% worse. Also, pouring anything at all into a shutter is a bad idea, but alcohol, unless it is denatured alcohol bought at a hardware store, is one of the worst. Drugstore or grocery store alcohol is sold diluted. It is, at best, 10% water (some rubbing alcohol is 30% water with gums and balsams in it). This means you have, probably, a water damaged camera now. You use naptha or white gas to clean shutters. It does a far better job of dissolving oils and greases, it won't damage anything, and it evaporates cleanly.

There is also a great deal more to flushing out a shutter, even if you do only the most basic amateur job*, than pouring fluid in and then pouring it out. To do it that way, you'd have to do it about 50 times. What you are pouring out has crud dissolved in it. When whatever is left in there evaporates, the crud just redeposits. That's why your shutter was sticking again when the alcohol evaporated. Think of washing a dish. you don't just soap it up and put it away -- you have to rinse it and dry it too.

*The simple "spray and pray" method used by most amateurs involves removing the lens elements and then cleaning the shutter blades with naptha. You swab the blades with a sopping wet cotton swab and then mop up the fluid (and the dissolved crud) using the dry end of the swab. Then you work the shutter a few times and repeat. Do this about 50 times or so. yes, it is tedious and it takes a while (and there are better ways of doing it), but it does work. Do not just pour anything, including naptha, into the shutter. yeah, it will dissolve some of the crud, but then it will redistribute it elsewhere, because it is sloshing all around in there and you don't know where it is going.
 
This post should become a sticky already!
I find it hard to believe that so many things that you purchase on e-bay get "lost in the mail"! Three items you mentioned. How many more? If an e-bay purchase sent to you is not lost in the mail then then it arrives inoperative. I would make book that the "inoperative" equalizer you bought was probably 110 and not 220, and you stuck it to the poor seller. Probably bought a $5 inverter-that you probably reported "lost in the mail", and are now enjoying a vintage equalizer on someone elses dime.
It's very magnanimous of you holding out from doling out your punishment on the poor guy who had the misfortune of selling you an under $20 camera.
You always buy inexpensive crap anyway, so what do you expect? I bet you've never spent more than $30 on a piece of equipment. You get what you pay for.
Do you realize that a Mint black paint original Leica MP doesn't have to function? That's right. Mint refers to cosmetics and not function. Check auctions from auction houses-not ebay which is an online garage sale-and see how audiophile, firearms or photo equipment gets rated. They are rated for cosmetics and function seperately. I wish someone would post you e-bay name so that I can block you from bidding if I decide to list something.

I sold a fairly rare and expensive camera on e-bay. The buyer/jerk sent me an e-mail claiming that he brought the camera to his technician who said the flash sync was off by 1/100000000 of a second or some crap like that. I checked the delivery confirmation and he sent the e-mail 10 minutes after receiveing the camera. I called his bluff and offered him a full refund. He declined, but wanted a $100 concession or he would leave me - feedback. Anyway, I gave him the $100 and the next thing I see is my camera on his webpage telling how rare and mint this example was. This guy must be a relative of yours.
 
Stu W said:
............You always buy inexpensive crap anyway, so what do you expect? I bet you've never spent more than $30 on a piece of equipment. You get what you pay for.....
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Hi Stu,

Many thanks for refering me to that page with the info to solve the technical problem.

As for your last post, its tones and direction, after reading and taking note I prefer to avoid answering. We can disagree, we can bitterly diagree, but let's remain in the frame of RFF friendship.

Cheers,
Ruben
 
Ruben, I must apologize for losing my temper over a series of posts. You mention RFF friendship and I agree. However, I consider the advice of my RFF friends. Ruben, if your post aroused the ire of so many people I think you should have considered the possibility that maybe you were wrong in your actions.
As far as your purchases, learn your product first. I Googled Canonet's and found statements like "every one will have a sticky shutter", "15 out of 16 have shutters that stick", the list goes on and on. There are a dozen threads right here on RFF dealing with sticky Canonet shutters. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. That seems to be your pattern of purchasing old, inexpensive Japanese rangefinders.

About 30 years ago I purchased a 37' wood Egg Harbor. An old shipwright walked by and told me the stem had dry rot. I asked how he knew, and he told me that Egg Harbors had 2 types of stems-ones that were rotten and ones that were replaced, and since mine looked original it was rotted. Guess what? I had to replace the stem in the boat. If I were you I would listen to the combined wisdom of the forum members. Stu

PS-I didn't argue with the 80+ year old Scandinavian shipwright, although I'm sure you would have.😀
 
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