| Author | Message | ||
     Smasher Tinkerer Username: Smasher Post Number: 13 Registered: 12-2008 Rating: N/A |
Hi, all. I have a Retina IIIc which I'm very fond of, but which has an intermittent shutter. I've had limited success using naptha a number of times to clean the blades. (The really annoying thing: it seems to behave just fine until I load a roll of film and try shooting; then it behaves as if it's gummed up again.) The cocking rack under the top cover looks fine, and I think I've got the little gear that transfers the cocking action to the shutter assembly (at 10:00 as you look at the front of the camera) adjusted correctly. A couple of days ago I took a deep breath and opened up the assembly down as far as (and including) the speed plate. (I also took out the front and rear lens assemblies.) There seems to be a little bit of grime in there, but nothing awful. I dripped a few drops of naptha into the shutter assembly, cleaned the speed plate and parts above it as best I could, and reassembled the shutter. It worked OK for a few cycles--and adjusting shutter speed and aperture seemed smoother than before--but then (after sitting for a couple of days to air out), the blades failed again. At this point I've got the lens assemblies removed. I'm wondering if it makes sense to flood clean the shutter, but I have a couple of questions before I proceed: - My plan is to disassemble the shutter down past the speed plate, remove the shutter from the lens board (one ring from behind?), and dunk it in naptha. Is this a good idea? What about the focus helicoid? Does the focus helicoid stay on the lens board when you remove the shutter ass'y? - What about re-lubing? I'm assuming that if I dunk the shutter and let it dry, I'll have to re-lube at least some of its components. Looking at the Synchro-Compur manual (http://benoit.suaudeau.perso.neuf.fr/manuels_rep/obturateurs/Compur-shutter-repa ir-manual.html), there's some information there about different types of lubricant and where to apply them. (See Section 12, "Lubrication Schedules.") They list a "Lubricant A" and a Lubricant C," but I don't know what these correspond to, or if I'd have to disassemble the shutter further to properly lubricate it. What do these "Lubricant A" and "Lubricant C" correspond to? I have available the following: - Watch oil (the stuff from Micro-Tools) - Tri-Flow (probably the wrong stuff--too many additives?) - Phil's Tenacious Oil (a thicker oil for bicycles--probably exactly the wrong stuff) - Silicon grease (which I'd be inclined to use for focusing helicoids but nothing else) I don't have a shutter-speed tester, so I don't want to take apart the whole shutter and reassemble, just to get to the shutter and aperture leaves. And I'm not intending this to be my only camera; I just want it to be reliable enough for occasional use, so I think doing a full CLA is overkill, especially given my limited repair skills. I'm shooting and souping mostly black-and-white at this point, so shutter accuracy ain't really crucial. I just want it to work when I want it to work, not necessarily to work to within 10% of spec. So I guess the short version of all this is: Can I just take it off the lens plate, pull it partially apart, dunk it in naptha, let it dry, apply a tiny bit of watch oil here and there (where exactly?), and call it a day, or do I need to be more invasive than that? |