Pinhole in shutter, repair?

[john_elder1]

I am using a leica 111C that has a very small pinhole in the first

shutter curtain. The hole is not a result of sun burn. It is near the

bottom of the shutter curtain. It is so small that I have to move the

camera around before I see the metal pressure plate through the hole.

I want to repair this myself. I have tried to find an answer in the

archives and have not been succesful. I would appreciate any response

from anyone familiar with solving this problem. Thanks in advance.

[stuart_richardson]

I repaired a few similarly small holes in a Canon VT with liquid electrical tape. The key is to

use as little as possible and keep checking to see if the hole is sealed. Then wait at least 24

hours before you either wind or release the shutter (depending on which curtain). If you don't

wait until it is absolutely totally positively dry, then it might cause the curtains to stick

together when they are rolled up. I did this on a VT because I was not as concerned that I

would mess something up. If it was on an M, I would probably send it in to be patched by a

pro. For a IIIc, I might attempt it.

[subhash_tiwari]

Had a similar problem- couldn't even see the holes, except they appeared without fail as "headlights" on every frame at the same spot. Sent it to DAG. Apparently, the curtains can be bought for about $35, but don't know if they are easily replaced DIY. The CLA and repair cost me $210 at DAG, who, BTW, did a great job.

If the photos don't 'show' the holes after a liquid tape fix, that would save some money.

Subhash

[Gus Lazzari]

Hello John,

A simple and cheap fix for this pin hole which isn't really hazardous to the shutter because the alternative is a complete tear down anyway. Here it is;

 

Get a hole punch and find a piece of discarded curtain material maybe at a local repair shop and punch a patch out. Put some film in to the IIIc to protect the pressure plate. Get some rubberized contact cement and apply it to the little home made patch and also a very small smear at the sight of the hole. Next press the patch to that affected area carefully pressing it tightly with your finger. Don't be sloppy which makes it nice and almost undetectable. A rebalancing of the curtain travel times (IIIc's are 18 to 20 ms) should be in order, but you can get by with out it. The CTT's are very low velocity by today's standards. I.e. Leica M's slow 16ms vs. an R9 at the lightening speed of 2ms.

 

Remove the protective film, shoot a test roll with a few firings done without the lens screwed in.

 

The goop idea... I haven't tried, but this has been a proven method for many years. Also, adhesive tape isn't a proper fix due to the possibility of peeling off in to the camera. Not good, your technician will curse your name for hours as he tracks down all remnants of that sticky adhesive. Gus

[john_elder1]

Stuart: Thanks! Who manufactures "liquid electrical tape", where did you buy it? What tool or instrument did you use to apply it to the curtain? Thanks.

[peter]

I recently posted this on another thread:

 

If it turns out that the repair to the pin hole in the curtain is too expensive these are easy to repair yourself without replacing the curtain or even disassembling the camera. Buy yourself some black plastidip (probably in spraycan version as its thinner and spray it into the spray can top and then apply lightly with a small brush or Q tip. Let it dry over night before recocking or firing the camera and it should do the trick - usually works well.) See http://www.plastidip.com/consumer/index.html for details. The stuff can often be found at automtive and hardware stores.

This is probably contingent on the curtain material otherwise being in good condition ie with the rubber not perished. If you do not like the result, nothing much is lost if you are putting the camera in for a CLA anyway. The cost is around 6 bucks US although here in Oz they slugged me $20. Still worth it. I have done it by the way and my result was just fine.

 

As it happens these people are the ones who make the liquid electrical tape (check the web iste.)

[stuart_richardson]

John -- Peter has most of the advice I can give you. I just bought the stuff at my local

hardware store. I had never heard of it before I read about it for this fix, but the people at the

hardware store knew about it. It was a few dollars. To apply it, I sacrificed an old print

spotting brush (a very fine brush). You need to wipe it quickly after applying though, as it will

gum up the brush pretty quickly. To be honest, I think a toothpick would also work. I don't

know if I would use a q-tip since I suspect it would leave a bunch of cotton fibers.

[Uhooru]

I actually used the tiniest bit of elec. tape on my M6. Its been great for 3 years now.

[john_elder1]

Thanks Everybody! This type of quick response is one of the things that make this forum great. Off to Home Depot. I will buy both Plasti Dip and Liquid Tape. I will do some tests before making the repair to see which is the better product. They are described very similarly. I will post my results in 24 hours. Thanks again.

[john_elder1]

The bottom line is that the liquid electrical tape worked very well. I used the brand sold at Home Depot. I wasn't able to get Plastidip in black, so I didn't do a comparison. If I was to do it again I would use the smallest artist brush that I could find. I made a patch,app 2mm, that was bigger than I intended. A smaller brush would have made a smaller patch. I waited 24 hours for the liquid tape to dry. Today I did a shutter test using film. I made 2 zone V exposures at each of the following shutter speeds: 1000, 500, 200,100, and 60th seconds using a uniform coated medium gray target. I used 12 exposure color film and had it processed in 15 min w/out prints. Result was fine. All negs were were evenly exposed edge to edge indicating the repair didn't effect shutter speed or travel. Further, all 10 negs were the same density indicating that my shutter speeds are accurate.

Thanks for the help. Based on my results i would recommend this self- repair