The really, serisously, bad idea thread

[Cale Arthur]

Unless it has just been CLAd, using the self timer in the first place is a bad idea.

Here, here.. and i'm a firm believer in the notion that the use of screwdrivers/pliers/wrenches/crowbars, etc. should be governed by the state licensing commision. I'd be comfy adding most lubricants to that list as well. It's completely horrifying what certain people can make happen with these items..

--c--

 

[shadowfox]

How about leaving any crucial/fragile parts in precarious position thinking "I'd come back to it in a minute..." and having your elbow/sleeve/invisible third arm knock it off its perch and send it diving into the hardwood floor.

 

[Kim Coxon]

Hardwood floor is easy. It's the smallest screw or spring in the carpet that gets me. :bang:

Kim

How about leaving any crucial/fragile parts in precarious position thinking "I'd come back to it in a minute..." and having your elbow/sleeve/invisible third arm knock it off its perch and send it diving into the hardwood floor.

 

[rogue_designer]

Hardwood floor is easy. It's the smallest screw or spring in the carpet that gets me. :bang:

Kim

Clearly your floor isn't 80 years old with large cracks between the boards like mine.

I've lost quarters between the boards. Never mind small screws.

 

[FallisPhoto]

Hardwood floor is easy. It's the smallest screw or spring in the carpet that gets me. :bang:

Kim

I have a big magnet for the steel parts that do that. I think the non-steel parts quickly duck into some kind of worm hole.

 

[FallisPhoto]

Here, here.. and i'm a firm believer in the notion that the use of screwdrivers/pliers/wrenches/crowbars, etc. should be governed by the state licensing commision. I'd be comfy adding most lubricants to that list as well. It's completely horrifying what certain people can make happen with these items..

--c--

Well, I just believe that certain people should not be allowed to come within 100 feet of a vintage camera, much less own one.

 

[FallisPhoto]

Removing very small screws out over a hard surface so they bounce onto the carpet.

I have this cafeteria tray, lined with self-sticking felt. Works great, unless you somehow knock the whole tray off the bench. Hasn't happened yet, but according to Murphy's Law, it is going to.

 

[FallisPhoto]

Thread can also be titled, "Things to look for when buying equipment from the following people" 😛

Do you have anyone in mind?

 

[FallisPhoto]

How about taking a camera apart without good diagrams or taking good notes and/or pictures as you disassemble it.
________Where did this piece come from???????____________
________Why do I have one screw left, but it doesn't fit the remaining hole?????

The one I like is when you take a piece off of the camera and a couple of shims that you didn't know were there fall out of it and you have not got a clue where they came from. You know it is going to be a long day then.

 

[FallisPhoto]

Just remembered another one: Cleaning semitransparent mirrors with whatever the heck it is that these guys use that takes the silvering off -- and then they wonder why their rangefinders are so dim. I wonder if it's silver polish? I've found several of those on ebay. Thank God for Edmund Scientific and their beam splitter mirrors.

 

[greyhoundman]

The beamsplitters corrode. Then when they touch them ever so gently, the oxides come off.
Most splitters have a metal vapor deposited on the glass.

 

[FallisPhoto]

The beamsplitters corrode. Then when they touch them ever so gently, the oxides come off.
Most splitters have a metal vapor deposited on the glass.

There are several types. The type you are talking about uses aluminum vapors, deposited on glass. The type I am talking about looks very slightly blue and is a type of film that is bonded to the glass. It is a lot more durable. This doesn't mean you can clean it with a cloth, but you can at least handle it to the extent you need to in order to cut it up and get it in place without the stuff coming off on your fingers.

(much later): i just realized what you were talking about. I thought you were criticizing my choice of using beam splitter mirrors to replace rangefinder mirrors. Instead you were explaining why the silvering comes off. I don't think some of the ones I have tried to fix were "touched ever so gently" but were all but scrubbed with scouring powder.

 

[Anglekat]

This whole thread has reassured me that the two bunches of bananas that i call "my hands" will never, ever, disassemble a camera.😀 😀

But i have total admiration for those of you who love to tinker. 🙂

 

[FallisPhoto]

This whole thread has reassured me that the two bunches of bananas that i call "my hands" will never, ever, disassemble a camera.😀 😀

But i have total admiration for those of you who love to tinker. 🙂

I just started doing it one day -- and created a bunch of "parts" cameras until I finally figured out what I was doing. I think that a great many of the bits in most tinkerer's parts bins came from their earlier efforts. After awhile, you become fairly competent though, and eventually you get pretty good at it.

 

[Pherdinand]

the metal vapor based beam splitters have only a VERY thin layer of metal. Less than 10 nanometers, depending on which metal.
No wonder they are so fragile on their surface.
Aluminum is also easily corroding, at this thickness especially (but it's cheaper). Properly it should be done with silver, gold, tantallum, titanium, platinum... These are quite corrosion resistant, and stick very well to glass.

 

[FallisPhoto]

the metal vapor based beam splitters have only a VERY thin layer of metal. Less than 10 nanometers, depending on which metal.
No wonder they are so fragile on their surface.
Aluminum is also easily corroding, at this thickness especially (but it's cheaper). Properly it should be done with silver, gold, tantallum, titanium, platinum... These are quite corrosion resistant, and stick very well to glass.

The only ones I am familiar with are the ones that came in old rangefinders (incredibly delicate, most of them), the new aluminum vapor beam splitters and the type with film. Of those, the film type is my favorite to work with, simply because I don't have special equipment and I can handle it enough to cut it to size with a Dremel and then install it without damaging it. To my knowlege, I've never tried the "noble metal" beam splitters you mention though, and for all I know, they might be equally easy to work with.

 

[rick oleson]

the cool thing about plastic cameras is that if they get wet you can dry them in a microwave

: ) =

 

[SolaresLarrave]

To insist on tinkering with cameras when you have a cold, and sneeze while you're holding small camera bits and pieces in your hands can be a pretty bad idea too.

 

[rick oleson]

Okay, here's one I actually did .... travel security regluations make it impossible to repeat it today, fortunately .... disassemble a camera on the tray table of an airliner in flight (particularly, a camera with shutter springs that go in from the top so that they can go flying over the seat backs if they get loose)

i did get the camera to run though, and i still have it.....

 

[FallisPhoto]

the cool thing about plastic cameras is that if they get wet you can dry them in a microwave

: ) =

Rick, all I can say is that I really hope that nobody here took that seriously. I can see it now -- five years down the road -- "But Rick said it was okay!"

I've run into some pretty dumb stuff before, but I'm having a hard time believing ... uh ... well ... come to think of it, I guess there are people dumb enough to do that.

I bought a Ciroflex once with the focusing rod frozen in place, with the faceplate stuck in the out position. This was a bought as a junker and all I wanted was the viewfinder off of the top, to replace one that had rusted. Of course I tried to free the rod anyway, soaking it with Liquid Wrench, to no effect. Anyway, while I was looking at it, I discovered that apparently, whoever had it before me had beaten the faceplate against the floor or stood on it or maybe put it in a vice in an effort to free it, because the faceplate was visibly concave. The end of the rod was slightly mushroomed too, so apparently he had resorted to a hammer first (or maybe that is what bent the faceplate -- must have really been slamming it). I'm pretty sure that guy would have tried the microwave.

Okay, here's one I actually did .... travel security regluations make it impossible to repeat it today, fortunately .... disassemble a camera on the tray table of an airliner in flight (particularly, a camera with shutter springs that go in from the top so that they can go flying over the seat backs if they get loose)

i did get the camera to run though, and i still have it.....

It scares me just to do this over a carpeted floor. What were you thinking?