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Upnorthw
Tinkerer
Username: Upnorthw
Post Number: 4
Registered: 01-2007
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 03, 2008 - 02:33 pm: | 
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Hi,
I recently got a Rolleiflex Automat from an Estate Sale. It's in great shape but has one problem, it will not cock the shutter in 1/500. It works fine on all the other speeds. I've flush cleaned the shutter with no change. Could this be the result of someone trying to put it in 1/500 with the shutter cocked?
Thanks for any help.
Wes |
Markus
Tinkerer
Username: Markus
Post Number: 62
Registered: 08-2007
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 03, 2008 - 05:32 pm: |
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To cock a compur shutter at 1/500 one needs a bit more force than at the other speeds, since an additional spring is being loaded. It is pretty hard to put the thing into 1/500 when it is cocked but I don't think that you could really damage it by doing that. Did you take the face plate off to see if you can cock the shutter without using the crank? If this works, perhaps the mechanism that cocks the shutter is just a bit out of alignment and needs to be adjusted. |
Rick_oleson
Tinkerer
Username: Rick_oleson
Post Number: 615
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 03, 2008 - 09:42 pm: |
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I think you could damage the Compur by forcing it to 1/500 when cocked, although I have not looked through one closely to see exactly what would break or what the result would be on the operation of the shutter.
The difference in winding force at 1/500 is quite noticeable, you do have to push it through. I can't think offhand why it would not cock at 1/500, the only difference there is the charging of a booster spring located at the top center inside the shutter.... maybe that spring is installed incorrectly, or possibly broken in a way that causes it to jam the mechanism during cocking. |
Lucas
Tinkerer
Username: Lucas
Post Number: 74
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 04, 2008 - 05:31 am: |
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Some older Rolleiflex can only be set to 1/500 when the shutter is not cocked. When the speed is set at 1/500 you need to make the exposure at that speed, you cannot change it back to a lower speed unless the shutter is fired. This info I have from the Rollei book by W. Heering. I think you could easily shear off the internals if you insist on trying. |
Upnorthw
Tinkerer
Username: Upnorthw
Post Number: 5
Registered: 01-2007
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 04, 2008 - 07:59 am: |
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Thanks for the replys.
When I had the front off, the winding mechanism would turn the cocking ring to the same spot in every speed. But in 1/500 the ring does not catch and just comes back opening the shutter as it does. The shutter release part of the operation does engage. |
Ham
Tinkerer
Username: Ham
Post Number: 16
Registered: 05-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 04, 2008 - 08:57 am: |
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From my limited recent experience, I'd say that if it cocks in other speeds but not at 500, the reason it doesn't is that it isn't fully cocking.
The latching mechanism for the shutter is the same at all speeds, and therefore if it doesn't, it isn't. Your problem is that the cam plate is not turning quite far enough.
The shutter I worked on is here http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/londondailyphoto/CompurShutter/photo#5215870076952 419650 minus the cam plate. The extra power spring is at about 1 o'clock on this pic, and the cam plate turns anti clockwise onto it. The latch is at about 2 o'clock.
Try a drop of oil (using a watch oiler = very small drop) on the cam plate by the spring.
oh yeah, I'm assuming through ignorance that the 500 speed is similar to this one which is 300 and caveat (2) I've only taken 3 shutters apart in my life :-) - all in the past three weeks. There are folk here that know a lot more than I do. |
Markus
Tinkerer
Username: Markus
Post Number: 63
Registered: 08-2007
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 04, 2008 - 09:41 am: |
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I had a similar problem with my Yashica-Mat, the cocking mechanism was not traveling far enough to cock the shutter reliably every time. The solution for the Yashica-Mat was to straighten the linkage to the crank mechanism. To expose that linkage, I had to take the side panel and crank off and disassemble the gears in there, since the linkage was hidden under pretty much everything in there. The Rolleiflex might be similar to the Yashica-Mat, I would check out the Rolleiflex repair manual first, though (it's available for free on this web site, click the Repair Manuals link in the header on this page). |
Upnorthw
Tinkerer
Username: Upnorthw
Post Number: 6
Registered: 01-2007
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 07, 2008 - 01:42 pm: |
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Thanks for the help everyone. Ham and Markus you were right. It was not quite moving all the way, missing by at the most 1/32 of an inch. I went for an easy fix and put a little bit of JB Weld on the edge of the arm that pushes the cocking ring. So far so good. |
