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Arnold Harris
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, November 08, 2005 - 07:05 pm: | 
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I have now have accumulated ten Voigtlander Vitessa-T 35mm rangefinders. Two of these have problems with the double interlock, which enables a downstroke of the combi-plunger to advance the film, but only after the tensioned shutter has been released.
The problem in both these cameras turns out to be missing miniature ball bearings that transfer pressure on the shutter release button to the double interlock at the base of the camera body.
There are ten of these in each camera, each about 1.5mm diameter, and they are identified in the original German parts tables as 1.5 DIN 5401. They look like ordinary nickel steel ball bearings, and their sole function is to transfer movement along a curved shaft to the interlock parts mounted on the bottom plate.
Does anyone know where I might purchase a supply of these very small steel ball bearings or their equivalent?
While I am on the topic: Anyone disassembling for service the various old Vitessa models should be careful that when disassembling the base plate from the camera body, keep the base plate oriented upward so the bearings will not spill out from the tube.
Better yet, tilt the removed base plate from the camera and carefully tip it sideways over a small sealable container, so the bearings can easily be retrieved and poured (or inserted one at a time) back into the curved raceway tube on the bottom plate. A clean small plastic pill bottle works fine for this purpose, or an empty 35mm plastic film cannister.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI |
Nikos
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, November 08, 2005 - 10:16 pm: |
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Micro Tools have them:
http://www.micro-tools.com/ |
Arnold Harris
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, November 09, 2005 - 01:05 pm: |
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Thanks Nikos. Micro-Tools does indeed have precisely what I need in the way of 1.5mm ball bearings, plus a lot of other stuff I hardly knew existed.
Taking apart and repairing 50-year-old 35mm rangefinder cameras is really not as difficult as I imagined. But having on hand multiples of the same camera model is a real advantage, using one camera as an example of what the arragement ought to look like in the other camera, assuming you didn't screw up anything.
The hardest thing about this project was finding adequate repair manuals for the old Voigtlanders. The Braunschweiger folks were not too strong on that. Fortunately, I was able to put together information from two separate repair manuals, including the fact that one had a "tafel" (visual breakout of parts and sub-assemblies) that the other manual was supposed to have but did not.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI |
Stuart Willis
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 14, 2005 - 07:38 am: |
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Since you have reached the point of spilling the ball bearings I don't suppose the following will make you feel comfortable. But it might help others as reading this article sequence.
There is really little merit and very few justifications for removal of the Vitessa T baseplate and thus the ball-bearing spill wouldn't come into the act. Anything which needs to be accessed can be so by either removing the Vitessa T lens and mount as an assembly and thus providing access to the innards of the baseplate .. and/or removing the film-counter panel as providing access to most components of the plunger-drive, shutter cocking and film transport mechanism. For all of the above one only removes but half a dozen screws.
Pulling off the baseplate is one of those overkill errors which we all make from time to time. That is to say we overstrip and disassemble unnecessarily.
Hope this helps someone ;-)
Stuart Willis |
Arnold Harris
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 21, 2005 - 05:47 pm: |
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Stuart, I apologize for waiting a week before replying. I didn't spill the 1.5mm bearings from the long curved chute on the baseplate. I simply found two of three Vitessa-T cameras that I am presently working on were missing all or some of the bearings. I replaced these with identical new bearings from Micro-Tool. Now the release button-activated portion of the double interlock works fine on both cameras.
I had to remove the bottom plates because of other obscure problems that couldn't otherwise be dealt with. For example, the small spring that keeps that tensions the part of the interlock that keeps the exposure mechanism from working unless the combi-plunger is released from down or lock positions. That spring cannot be re-attached without removing the bottom plate.
I now have twelves (12) Voigtlander Vitessa-T units, with all kinds of auxiliary lenses, and I am going through them one at a time, causing no damage and fixing problems.
Only one of these, a recent eBay purchase, has thus far proven problematic. The eveready case is gorgeous. The camera body is free of defects. The 50mm Color-Skopar lens has perfect glass. Everything works fine. Except...
When I opened up the leather case, I found, taped inside, a small folded piece of brown paper cut from a shopping bag, and labelled, "shutter blades".
I opened the paper, and there they were in all their splendor. Five gunmetal black shutter blades from a typical Synchro-Compur 00-MXV CN-1110-030 or 00-MXV CN-1110-000 'weit' shutter series. Two of them were festooned with surface rust specks. On further inspection, I discovered that some (idiot?), perhaps decades ago, had removed them from the shutter unit and had not re-installed them. Probably, this particular VV-T sat hidden on someone's shelf until death did they part.
For all I know, these 45-50 year old shutter blades blades may be irreplaceable. So I have begun soaking them in sewing machine oil and researching ways to clean them before attempting re-installation. Fortunately, I have a complete CD repair manual for the various 1950s-1960s Compur shutters. But all the manuals in the world can't re-assemble a camera without working or restorable shutter blades. So, I'm all ears if you ever have tried this.
Some time ago, we had some dialogue about removing the screw-on buttons from the top of the combi-plungers on the VVs so equipped. Prying out the small pressed-in cap from the top of button and loosening the set screw hidden underneath was suggested by someone.
But don't do that! Just heat the top of the plunger shaft, and the button unscrews. According to an original Voigtlander repair manual I bought from the UK, the purpose of that hidden screw is to adjust the depth that the combi-plunger plunges. Down at the end of the plunger is a gear that move vertically to mate with a gear that turns the film advance, but only if and when the shutter has been released.
So now, why did I buy all those VV-Ts? Partly because I am particularly fond of this make and model, and partly because I thought I was getting some parts cameras. But it turned out that all the ones that had been abandoned for use as "parts" cameras, could all be made to work with a little judicious attention to sticking or frozen-shut shutters, interlock intricacies, etc. Now they no longer are parts cameras.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI |
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