What's your won/lost record as a repairman?

[dm2]

I ruined a perfectly good Contaflex BC about 15 years ago. I don't want to go into details... Now, I limit myself to replacing mirror bumper and light seal foam (where I can't really hurt anything, and a real professional can easily 'undo' my work later).

 

As I've collected and used more (and more and more) classic cameras, I've come to respect them too much (regardless of their monetary value) to risk damaging them. I now gladly pay others more competent than myself to keep the old beasts clicking.

[John Farrell]

I have a Zenit 3M sitting on my work table, disassembled, waiting....it's been like that for over a month! One Sunday afternoon, when inspiration strikes, I'll clean it up and put it back together. I expect it to be much more reliable. I bought this with an industar f3.5 lens, but I had one of the machinists at work turn down the thread on an M42 helios F2 to fit M39.

[bennybee]

Travis, stand-by for a close-up of the 'steel ball in the hole'... I'll take out the digicam after work tonight.

[grahams]

My record has improved greatly since I took the advice of a sage: Don't repair what ain't broke!

[bacsa]

James Dainis, if the steel balls are the only thing wrong, i might be able to help you out with them. Tell me the approx size and the quantity, i can get some for you. It would be a shame to lose such a gorgeous lens on this.

[bacsa]

Oh i forgot to talk about how I butchered the winding knob on my super ikonta iii. Actually, the screw only. After the vf/rf cleaning, the knob got loosened. I figured that i was too chicken to screw the small retaining screw back properly, that's why. So i took a strong flathead screwdriver and with one self-confident twist i broke the screw. Of course the hole had a big chunk of the screw that I couldn't pick out anymore.

 

Hm, what to do... I took a small drill and drilled a hole in the screw remainings. Luckily the screw was brass, quite soft.Then i stuck a triangluar plier's sharp steel tip in the hole and managed to get the remainings of the screw out. Huh. I found a replacement screw of the correct size and... bang! i broke it in the hole. One really has to be stupid to make the same mistake twice, on the same day.

 

Well, i started to lose my patience. I took a cup of coffee (bad idea) and started to drill the hole again. However this screw proved to be made of good stuff...the drill broke. It was of a diameter 0.7 or thereabout, very fragile. Hm, what to do next. A few sips of coffee, and I realized I can just drill a bigger hole. With a bigger stronger drill. Size matters.

 

So i did. I made a hole that was somewhat bigger than the original. Then i borrowed a thingie to tap a screw-thread into it. Then i went for a big thick stainless steel screw to the workshop. (I went there twice, since the first time i lost it on the way back. No, not true. My shirt pocket ate it.) Now the things are back to normal again; although the head of the screw sticks out a bit, it's fuilly functional. And, certainly unique.

[rob_murray]

Out of maybe 50-60 older cameras I have serviced I have only had one problem where I overoiled a shutter...I am very careful work over a

large developing tray to catch parts, research on the net the repair procedure and only start when I have time to finish. If you have to leave a camera full of parts out for a week it may get reassembled wrong. I can now document the teardown with my digital camera. I also dont buy cameras that are too far gone either.

[James G. Dainis]

csab',<BR>

Thank you for the offer but I have given up on the lens. Even if I manage to figure out wher the steel balls go, I would still have the slow aperture problem, and I think I did a few other bad things. I was advised to set the lens to f16 and tape it in that position but after opening it up I removed the tape to work the diaphragm and bad things happened including losing those balls. <B></B><BR>         I knew that the old MC lens closed down a bit slower than modern lenses but would work okay on older cameras. It still closed down too slowly on My Minolta SRT-201

[bennybee]

OK. Sorry, but the picture of the 'steel ball in the hole' (see above) will have to wait : the damn digicam's batteries are flat. Again. They got a full load on monday and the camera turns itself off after just 1 minute - while I was resetting the date, hour and preferred settings because the other battery set had also died inside the camera BTW !! That digicam and its dreadful batteries are driving me nuts. As if I needed to be reminded why I prefer old fashioned cameras.

[bennybee]

BTW, re. those batteries : I know it's OT, but I see they now sell rechargeable Li-Ion CRV3 cells. Anyone think it's worth buying those (with yet another dedicated charger) to replace the four awfull NiMH and NiCd AA's? Or should I spend that good money on another stinkin' 30s or 40s wreck (or film) that brings so much more joy?

[bennybee]

Travis, here's a quick and dirty digicam picture of the stuck ball before those batteries die on me again. I still don't know why I tried to shove it in there. I guess I was already giving up on the camera. Or perhaps I figured the setting screw in the locking ring would not fall out again (it didn't seem to fit anymore and was not locking right any longer)...<div></div>