Thread repair on a FED, also FED vs. FED-2 size

[Muller]

I've had a FED sitting around for about a year, finally looking to do some repair work to it. The mechanism looks decent enough after shooting a test roll, especially as beat up as it looks.
The real concern is fixing a few stripped out screw treads where the top cover meets the body, possibly from a previous owner repair (or learning). Not sure what to use to replace the metal where the threads should be, then to tap new threads for the screws.


And last thing I need is another camera (said while looking at recent Moskva-2 acquisition), but I'm starting to look at adding a FED-2 to the stable. One thing I like about the FED is the compact size with a colapsing lens. Not too crazy about the viewfinder, that's where the FED-2 prospect comes in, brighter viewfinder and wide rf base. The one thing that keeps me from picking one up is a question of size. Is it about the same size as the FED or a Zorki-4?

 

[wolves3012]

The FED 2 doesn't have a brighter finder than the FED (1). I say that within the understanding that all FSUs vary between examples anyway though. A FED 2 is a bit wider and taller than a FED, not hugely but it's certainly not as pocketable. It's not as tall as a Zorki 4. If you get one with a collapsible lens there's not *too* much size-penalty.

As for thread repair on the FED, you're going to find that a tough one. Are they so bad that you can't just use slightly larger screws? The shell is aluminium so there would be no easy fix.