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Coincidentally I found this site last week when looking for information on fixing a Seiko 0 large format shutter. Great to see it here. Any film photographers

by foobar1962 5y ago

Coincidentally I found this site last week when looking for information on fixing a Seiko 0 large format shutter. Great to see it here. Any film photographers in Sydney Australia, reach out. (Particularly any that can get a Seiko 0 shutter adjusted.)

brudgers 5y ago
What is wrong with it?
- foobar1962 5y ago
  I bought the lens with the shutter blades stuck open. The shutter was fitted between an early Fujinon SWD 90mm f5.6 EBC at an attractive price. It turned out there were a couple of things wrong. The main one was that lubricants had gummed-up the shutter blades and the slow-speed escapement (that's two separate things wrong). The gummed-up blades had caused mechanical interlocks in the lens to get out of whack and jam the blades open. Soaking the entire mechanism in Shellite (lighter fluid in US) for a day or two unstuck the shutter blades, and some poking-around freed the mechanism. Working the escapement repeatedly has it moving nicely; a bit slow but close enough. Be very careful with lubrication. Some left the factory with none at all, and those places that were lubricated were things like the cocking lever; not the escapements or clockwork. The lubricants used are those used for watches: often whale oil or modern synthetic replacements, not stuff from Bunnings or Supercheap Auto...
  - brudgers 5y ago
    For shutter (and aperture) blades I have used electronics contact cleaner. It's fast and is unlikely to remove lubrication from parts that require lubrication. It is recommended as a first step in a Fix Old Cameras video linked in another comment.
    - foobar1962 5y ago
      It's usually the lubricants that cause the problems and need removing: they have either migrated from there there were meant to be, or they have gone hard or gummy. Care with solvents needs to be taken for their effect on non-metal parts. Many recommend alcohol, but it often contains a bit of water and doesn't easily dissolve oils and greases. I've found Sheelite (lighter fluid) to be about the best. For those of a certain age, Freon was the go-to solvent. Ozone layer be damned!
      - brudgers 5y ago
        Freon's properties are somewhat analogous to contact cleaner: an aerosol that dissolves organic compounds and evaporates quickly (Freon boils around -30C). Basically they go where you spray them and are gone before they have time to drip somewhere else.
andreareina 5y ago
Hah, I was just about to respond with my own experience trying to repair a large format shutter. IIRC the timing wasn't consistent and opening it up and very judiciously applying light oil on some pivots helped it didn't do so for very long. Probably some oil deep inside somewhere that had gotten gummy. I didn't have the courage to take it further apart and give it a proper clean.
- brudgers 5y ago
  A non-destructive first intervention is using electronics contact cleaner. I learned from this Fix Old Cameras video https://youtu.be/P57xV0mz8mI https://youtu.be/P57xV0mz8mI I used it on a Mamiya 80mm f2.8 lens set for C-series TLR’s two years ago. Still working. Only caveat is to also clean the aperture blades if they are part of the shutter. I didn’t the first time so it two tries to get everything smooth.

brudgers 5y ago

What is wrong with it?

foobar1962 5y ago
I bought the lens with the shutter blades stuck open. The shutter was fitted between an early Fujinon SWD 90mm f5.6 EBC at an attractive price. It turned out there were a couple of things wrong. The main one was that lubricants had gummed-up the shutter blades and the slow-speed escapement (that's two separate things wrong). The gummed-up blades had caused mechanical interlocks in the lens to get out of whack and jam the blades open. Soaking the entire mechanism in Shellite (lighter fluid in US) for a day or two unstuck the shutter blades, and some poking-around freed the mechanism. Working the escapement repeatedly has it moving nicely; a bit slow but close enough. Be very careful with lubrication. Some left the factory with none at all, and those places that were lubricated were things like the cocking lever; not the escapements or clockwork. The lubricants used are those used for watches: often whale oil or modern synthetic replacements, not stuff from Bunnings or Supercheap Auto...
- brudgers 5y ago
  For shutter (and aperture) blades I have used electronics contact cleaner. It's fast and is unlikely to remove lubrication from parts that require lubrication. It is recommended as a first step in a Fix Old Cameras video linked in another comment.
  - foobar1962 5y ago
    It's usually the lubricants that cause the problems and need removing: they have either migrated from there there were meant to be, or they have gone hard or gummy. Care with solvents needs to be taken for their effect on non-metal parts. Many recommend alcohol, but it often contains a bit of water and doesn't easily dissolve oils and greases. I've found Sheelite (lighter fluid) to be about the best. For those of a certain age, Freon was the go-to solvent. Ozone layer be damned!
    - brudgers 5y ago
      Freon's properties are somewhat analogous to contact cleaner: an aerosol that dissolves organic compounds and evaporates quickly (Freon boils around -30C). Basically they go where you spray them and are gone before they have time to drip somewhere else.

andreareina 5y ago

Hah, I was just about to respond with my own experience trying to repair a large format shutter. IIRC the timing wasn't consistent and opening it up and very judiciously applying light oil on some pivots helped it didn't do so for very long. Probably some oil deep inside somewhere that had gotten gummy. I didn't have the courage to take it further apart and give it a proper clean.

brudgers 5y ago
A non-destructive first intervention is using electronics contact cleaner. I learned from this Fix Old Cameras video https://youtu.be/P57xV0mz8mI https://youtu.be/P57xV0mz8mI I used it on a Mamiya 80mm f2.8 lens set for C-series TLR’s two years ago. Still working. Only caveat is to also clean the aperture blades if they are part of the shutter. I didn’t the first time so it two tries to get everything smooth.