The really, serisously, bad idea thread

[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--

There is a post somewhere here in RFF asking what kind of oil should be used to lubricate shutter blades.

 

[dee]

Is this the recommended list for the majority of ex-USSR camera restorers ?

 

[FallisPhoto]

Is this the recommended list for the majority of ex-USSR camera restorers ?

That just reminded me of another one: I've read about people running pumice toothpaste through the gears of Soviet cameras to smooth them up.

 

[rick oleson]

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

Well, I had all this time in flight with nothing else to do, and the shutter needed work, and I had the screwdrivers in my carryon....

I did just about freak though when the shutter spring went over the seat back in front of me. Luckily it was an empty seat so it didn't get snagged in somebody's hair, and I managed to get it back. I've done several (almost equally ill-advised) in motel rooms, but I never tried another one in an airplane.

 

[FallisPhoto]

Well, I had all this time in flight with nothing else to do, and the shutter needed work, and I had the screwdrivers in my carryon....

I did just about freak though when the shutter spring went over the seat back in front of me. Luckily it was an empty seat so it didn't get snagged in somebody's hair, and I managed to get it back. I've done several (almost equally ill-advised) in motel rooms, but I never tried another one in an airplane.

The thing that freaked me the most was when I had just removed the lens from a Hi-Matic, set it down ------- and three shims fell out of the back of it. God alone knows what their original positions were. The tolerances in Hi-Matics are incredibly tight and I never could figure out how to get them back in so the camera would go back together. That's how I came to have all my extra 7s parts.

 

[FallisPhoto]

It's January of 2010. I just found another one. Check this out:

See the white stuff around the base of the vertical adjusment screw? That's epoxy! I guess the guy didn't want it to move, once he had adjusted it. Too bad he got the adjustment wrong.

February of 2010: I finally got the vertical adjustment screw loose. It seems that the horizontal adjustment screws were glued in as well. I got one of those to come loose, but the other one is still stuck.

 

[FallisPhoto]

I'm guessing you've already tried a low temp soldering iron?

Yep. Only thing I can think of to do is to reapply the soldering iron, alternating with cold, until the expanding and contracting metal finally cracks loose from the epoxy.

 

[FallisPhoto]

Or shutter curtains, for that matter!

Yep, I see shutter curtains with brown stains on them occasionally. Won't come off either.