| Author | Message | ||
     Cooltouch Tinkerer Username: Cooltouch Post Number: 245 Registered: 01-2009 Rating: N/A |
Yeah, I realize I could have saved myself a lot of grief if I'd only known then what I do now. *sigh* Live and learn, eh? I'm not at all sure yet what a "cocking rack" is or a "speed cam" for that matter, but I know what you mean. The circular doodad with a lot of odd projections here and there and with the cocking lever -- is that the cocking rack? Yeah, there are about four or five spring-loaded levers and such that have to be moved out of the way just to get it to sit down the way it's supposed to. And it's not much fun trying to charge the shutter while holding it in place and making sure one of those levers doesn't slip under it. I found that if I went ahead and installed the speed selector ring -- is that your "speed cam"? -- just pushing it into place, that this kept the cocking ring put and I could try dry-firing the shutter. Which is when I discovered that I must not have put everything back exactly right. I did my best re-installing everything using Hans's photos as a guide, and I felt pretty good that I'd done everything correctly. But obviously I haven't. For starters, the shutter release doesn't do anything. Sometimes -- it seems to depend on the shutter speed I select -- the shutter will fire as soon as I let go of the cocking lever. Other times I have to give it bit of shove to get things going. Other times it just locks up solid and I have to remove the shutter speed selector dial and fiddle around with it to get things to release. Actually, getting the shutter blades back in place and working correctly was the easiest part of this whole ordeal. A bit tedious, but nothing at all tricky about getting them back into place. The most frustrating part of this whole process has been dealing with the springs. I hate springs. I hate them because sooner or later one is gonna vanish. And this shutter didn't let me down in that regard. The tiny spring that acts to keep the MX lever firmly in the X position, which is about a half inch long and as thick as a human hair (actually probably about 0.012") simply vanished as I was reinstalling it. There are no other words to describe its behavior. One second it was there and the next it had just disappeared. Not a blur, not even the slightest sound of it impacting against anything. It's just gone. I tried fabricating a replacement from a section of a 0.013" guitar string, but found out after shaping it that it was just a tad too thick. I have both a 0.010" and a 0.012" string and I'll try again tomorrow. One of the two should work. But if things don't work out, I won't be too upset. The MX selector still stays in the X position, it just doesn't snap into that position without the spring. Tomorrow I plan to dismantle the shutter again and see if I can spot anything that looks different from the first time I dismantled it. If I can spot something like this, then chances are, that'll be the culprit. It's times like these that I wish the camera repair class I took many years ago still existed. I could sure use the insights and wisdom of that curmudgeonly old instructor right about now. |