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Sdedalus
Tinkerer
Username: Sdedalus
Post Number: 1
Registered: 04-2011
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 11, 2011 - 04:08 am: | 
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First off, thanks to all the people who have provided the wonderful information which has made a novice such as myself so incredibly dangerous.
I started the weekend with two functioning, yet essentially unusable cameras and the desire to perform a couple of relatively simple fixes to turn them into reasonable users. Then everything went south in a hurry.
My Super Ikonta needed a shutter CLA, a good lens and viewfinder cleaning and an overhaul of the film advance system. After having successfully brought my Diacord's shutter and Minolta XE7's meter back to life, I thought the first two would be within my grasp.
Disassembling the focus mechanism and lens both went quite smoothly, as did cleaning the slow speed assembly. Unfortunately I did something incorrectly, and after replacing the speed ring to test it out before reassembly, the shutter promptly jammed. I've been able to get the blades to release, but the shutter cocking mechanism no longer engages with the slow speed assembly and the shutter release engages after the cocking lever returns to rest, rather than when loaded.
Is anyone willing to take a gander at some pictures of the shutter to tell me what I might be able to do to get it working?
With the Ikonta currently beyond my help, I stupidly proceeded to tackle the Vitessa with its misaligned rangefinder and sticky hinges. Again, everything went well at first. The top plate came away easily, and while tedious, the rangefinder adjustments went well.
Then after quite literally dozens of times successfully reattaching the top plate and focus knob to check the view, the final reassembly turned into a complete and utter disaster. The shutter plunger slipped out of the little tube which engages the barndoor release and its spring ended up getting stuck and mangled. After much effort I was able to straighten out the plunger shaft, reengage the shutter release, and salvage the spring. And again, it was the final reassembly which killed me. While fiddling around with all of the protrusions to get them fitting in the holes of the baseplate, something slipped and the combi-plunger exploded. After scouring my table and floor for all of the pieces, hopefully there are only three ball bearings, I came back to the camera only to realize that the shutter plunger shaft had slipped out of place and one end was now jammed deep within the body of the camera, and on the other side, the plunger which had worked fine was now stopping halfway, rather than fully extending.
At this point it's starting to look like the body on this Vitessa is a total loss unless someone out there can perform miracles by proxy. If anyone wants detailed pictures of these disassembled I'll be happy to oblige. And if there are any parts you might need, I'm sure we can work something out. |
Msiegel
Tinkerer
Username: Msiegel
Post Number: 235
Registered: 03-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 11, 2011 - 05:39 am: |
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Hi,
if your Super Ikonta has the Compur Rapid shutter here's a link to an excellent set of pictures by Hans Kerensky.
http://tinyurl.com/comrapi
I hope that helps.
Best regards |
Hanskerensky
Tinkerer
Username: Hanskerensky
Post Number: 82
Registered: 05-2009
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 11, 2011 - 12:58 pm: |
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Hello,
Observed a problem with the above shown link to the Compur Rapid so click this one for my set :
Compur Rapid on Perkeo II
Cheers,
Hans |
Agno3
Tinkerer
Username: Agno3
Post Number: 35
Registered: 07-2007
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 11, 2011 - 01:46 pm: |
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These photos do a great job of showing the internals of the Compur-Rapid shutter. Thank you for posting them. |
Edward8
Tinkerer
Username: Edward8
Post Number: 55
Registered: 03-2010
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 11, 2011 - 05:48 pm: |
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Hi Sdedalus,
What a sorry tale! Oh, dear. Although I'm unable to help with the re-arrangement of the internals of your cameras due to pig-ignorance on my part, may I say I appreciate your sense of humour!
All the best with your project. Let's know how it goes ...
Regards. Edward |
Sdedalus
Tinkerer
Username: Sdedalus
Post Number: 2
Registered: 04-2011
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 11, 2011 - 07:02 pm: |
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Thanks Hans. I guess I'll be completely dismembered the shutter this weekend. The Vitessa is going to get bagged up and set aside until I get my hands on a repair manual. |
Hanskerensky
Tinkerer
Username: Hanskerensky
Post Number: 83
Registered: 05-2009
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 11, 2011 - 11:39 pm: |
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Hi Joshua, guess that's the best you could do. You should gradualy build your experience on camera repair. As times goes by and skills and number of tools have grown you could allways tackle that Vitessa again :-) |
Sdedalus
Tinkerer
Username: Sdedalus
Post Number: 3
Registered: 04-2011
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2011 - 07:00 pm: |
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I've bagged up all the bits and set aside my two nightmare cameras in favor of something simpler.
$45 netted me an Ikonta 524 in excellent cosmetic condition with a wildly misaligned rangefinder and sticky shutter. Fortunately for me, the top on this one is a snap to remove and the Prontor was far, far easier to break down and clean. I didn't have time to test the shutter for accuracy, but it sounds pretty close. The rangefinder is now dead on at infinity and close enough to ignore vertically. The lens may be a lowly f 3.5 Novar, but I get the feeling she'll be getting a lot of use.
One interesting dilemma I encountered was that the head on the retaining screw for the spring which holds the double exposure prevention mechanism in place had broken off and was floating around inside. Eventually I'll need to drill out the stuck shaft and replace the screw, but super glue seems to be holding quite well for now.
What's the best way to verify focus in the absence of ground glass? I've got a loose TLR focus screen which I used in place of the real thing, but I couldn't really tell for sure. I was able to get the front cell threading in at the point it disengaged, so it should be pretty close. |
Sdedalus
Tinkerer
Username: Sdedalus
Post Number: 4
Registered: 04-2011
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 20, 2011 - 12:34 am: |
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I got a chance to test out the shutter on the Mess Ikonta and it's running reliably and each speed is consistent.
The following are the average times for 5 actuations at each speed.
1s = 1.45s
1/2s = .88s
1/5s = .35s
1/10s = .15s
1/25s = .055s
1/50s = .034s
1/100s = .016s
1/300s = .004s
At 1/300th, the wave is stepped. Should I measure from the first or second peak? If it's the first, then 1/300 = .005.
Am I getting about as good as I'll get from a 55 year old Prontor SV, or should I go a bit further? As of yet I've removed and thoroughly cleaned the slow speed escapement and applied a surface cleaning to the rest of the shutter and the blades. I have neither removed the shutter from the camera nor done any other disassembly.
Thanks. |
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