Calling Rick Oleson (or anyone else with experience repairing Kodak Reflex II)

I've just acquired a taking lens and shutter assembly to provide parts

to repair the focus helical on my Reflex II TLR (the original was

damaged when I disassembled the lens from the shutter for shutter

cleaning, shortly after purchasing the camera a little over a year ago).

Now, however, I've got a quandary.

The replacement lens has a number of fine scratches on the front

surface; they aren't huge, nor are there enough that they'd likely

affect image quality other than adding a little flare, but they are

there, and the glass in my original is pristine.

I've had a suggestion that I might be able to lap out the stiffness

from the bent helical using very fine abrasive paste, but if that

fails I'll need to replace that part, which is also the cell for the

front-middle lens element, at which point the questions will be:

Can I take the easy way out and simply replace the entire element

without degrading the image quality? I've heard of some lenses where

this works well, and some where it doesn't -- which class is the

Anastar (ca. 1949-1954) in? Alternately, is there a reasonably simple

way to remove the glass from the brass cell/helical unit, so as to

swap just the actual damaged part? I can't see, on examination,

whether there's an inner cell that unscrews from the helical, and I'd

just as soon not damage the "new" part trying to disassemble a

permanently assembled unit.

Clearly, worst case, I can just swap all the glass and live with the

scratches on the front element, or play "mix and match" with ground

glass and loupe trying to recreate a combination that works well using

the "new" middle, original front, and either rear pair -- but ideally,

I'd like to keep my (exquisite) original glass...

I haven't tried removing the glass from the cells in the kodak reflex, so i can't answer that part. I would think that swapping out the entire front cell would be a better bet, assuming the helical is intact on the mating cell behind it. I'm never a big fan of swapping elements within a lens but I have done it and it's worked out okay.... the risk of a mismatch is probably less if you keep the cell intact rather than remove an individual element from it, for reasons of alignment and centering.

sorry i don't have a more specific answer....

rick :)=

Rick, I was hoping you of all people who know. No one seems to have tried this (the camera-fix list came up blank, too, other than being the source of the lapping suggestion). So, I guess I'll start by trying to lap out the stiffness in the bent cell with the original glass, and if that fails, I can test the lens with the good middle cell mated to my original front and rear elements -- and leave swapping the glass in the cells as a last resort if get down to the point that the complete replacement lens doesn't meet my needs.

Now, where'd I leave that film can full of 5 micron aluminum oxide, left from my telescope mirror?