Today I Disassembled "The Hard Bone"

[darkkavenger]

Max ?, Max ? ? ?

Yes comrade ?

 

[ruben]

"You too, Brutus ?" (*)

Cheers,
Ruben


(*) Julius Caesar after being stabbed by his assasin, according to the famous Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar", which I had not the pleasure to read yet.

 

[Spyderman]

As for the kind of grease, beyond the one recommended at the KSS, I have no idea. I work in a printshop, where I asked for the best type of grease and this is what I use - but for our purpose it doesn't matter:

The amount of grease should be minimum of the minimum, imagining a micronic layer of grease covering all moving parts. As for the instruments - there are no real instruments but METHOD. Sometimes you will use your smallest finger, and for intricate parts you may use a tooth wooden stick, but always almost invisible amounts.

The idea is not to try to paint all the gears with grease at a single strike, but leave a minimal amount at one or two spots per wheel, and then wind and fire, wind and fire, dozens of times G E N T L Y, not looking at TV but feeling the camera, feeling the winding. I strongly recommend to change in progressive and regressive order the shutter speeds, let's say after 10 firings at 1/1000, you change to 1/500 for another 10 windings and firing, etc.

For the sake of safety in not damaging both ends of each curtain, where they meet and engage, I propose to divide the greasing into two stages. Stage 1 with the back chasis open you will deal with the gears uncovered by the chasis. Stage 2, after you are done here, close the chasis and start greasing the upper gears around the winding knob. In both stages you will discovering more and more moving parts to grease. Everything that moves should be greased.

When you are done and your camera fully re-assembled, you will not be really done. You will have to carry the camera with you everywhere, even if it is only to work, or in case you are a student at home just to the bathroom. Shoot some 1 to infinity shots per day. This way the grease will further expand and all components of the camera will find their inner harmony.

During that month you will see by yourself that the camera is changing and things not so soft today will became further soft, like if the camera was a living organism.

But let me clear the other extreme: the idea is not to hit the camera. It is like letting the camera walk a lot, by natural pace, on rubberized shoes.

Hope I have answered most of your issues, at least to the best of my knowledge.

Cheers,
Ruben

I don't know if you are familiar with this, but let me warn you about one thing.

The shutter ribbons in a Kiev are consumer product. Inevitably one day they will tear. It's because the lower curtain moves along the ribbon and uses friction to stay in place during actual exposure. So when changing speeds, or firing the shutter, you are actually shortening its life...

Of course it can be repaired and the ribbons can be replaced... but first one needs the proper material, and also the knowledge and skill to do it...

Just my little warning...

PS: long live the Ruben's kiev project ! 😉

 

[ruben]

As far as my theoretical knowledge goes, shutter ribbons are to be changed each 20 years. Of course we never know if the camera we have have been used consecutively during 19 and half years. Another reason for orientating ourselves towards new, or mint Kievs 4AM.

Now, my pesonal experience here goes as follows. A Kiev 2a bought from Sovietcamera.com.ua came with new replaced ribbons.
A mint, really mint or unused Kiev 4 1965 bought from a high price
dealer at ebay came with original 1965 ribbons which broke recently. Fedka Kiev 2a has not been opened yet. As for Oleg I can fairly asume he installs new ribbons in his cameras for sale.

Conclusion? Sellers with fixing facilities will provide you Kievs with new ribbons. Ebay dealers just reselling what they get.... are to be questioned about.

AND A WORD TO OUR APPRECIATED BEGINNERS:
The way Spyderman had done his distensioning is and advanced technique of his own, more or less.
We are going to perform a much more stepped way, cleaning and lubricating everything that moves, and then perform a second X-Ray Test before distensioning or tensioning, to know where we stand. Upon this second test we will now for sure in which direction we will have to move.

Back with Spyderman, we could perform now the X-Ray Test and asses how much accurate his shutter his, beyond being very soft.

Cheers,
Ruben

 

[darkkavenger]

"You too, Brutus ?" (*)

Cheers,
Ruben


(*) Julius Caesar after being stabbed by his assasin, according to the famous Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar", which I had not the pleasure to read yet.

Did I stab my Kiev for lovely Contaxes ? 😉

you probably meant "tu quoque, fili mi" though 😀
i'm plain happy, even if nothing new on the camera "front line", i've got finally my italian passport, first official proof of my double citizenship (french/italian).

 

[Spyderman]

The way Spyderman had done his distensioning is and advanced technique of his own, more or less.

You're right Ruben, but I couldn't resist 😉 I hate waiting 😀


From my experience with Zorki 4 and 3C and 1 ... etc. I know the shutters tend to be tensioned much much more than is needed for their proper function. So I decided it must be the same with my Kiev. BTW: it's the mass produced 4a - not a precision machine like a 2 or 3.
I performed a deep cleaning of all old grease and oil and after a relube now (for 3rd day) am exercising the shutter out of the body. It is still getting smoother. In fact so much that I decided to further decrease the tension by 1 turn.

Attached are pictures of my Kiev from 5 minutes ago 😀