The really, serisously, bad idea thread [Archive]

FallisPhoto

12-14-2007, 09:36

Really seriously bad "repair" ideas I have run into. Yeah, I buy a lot of cameras on ebay. Opening them up and seeing what people have done to them is always a surprise. Feel free to add to the list.

1. Using WD-40 or powdered graphite to free up those sticky shutter blades. Why don't they just empty a can of baby powder in there? It would do just as good a job and it would probably be easier to get out.

2. Using superglue inside a camera. Ever seen those CSI episodes where they use superglue to make fingerprints show up? Well, it really does that. Takes a lot of work to get rid of them too. Plus all the glass goes milky.

3. Using wire pliers to loosen a stuck brass or aluminum lens ring (if it wasn't knurled before, it is now).

4. Using wire pliers on the THREADS of lens rings. Instant parts camera!

5. Oiling the shutter blades (yeah, on purpose).

6. If your film advance is stuck DON'T try to force it. If you do, you've probably just gone from "stuck" to "broken."

7. I got a Ciroflex once from some guy who had apparently decided to try to free a stuck focusing rod by beating the face of the camera with a rubber mallet. I am being charitable here and assuming he didn't stomp on it or beat it against the floor. Did he really think that would fix it? What he wound up with was a camera that was still stuck and that had the lenses pointing in different directions.

8. Using isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol to clean shutter blades. Ever noticed how those bottles say 70% alcohol? Ever wonder what the other 30% is? Well, it can be a number of things, including oils, balsams, petroleum jelly, and etcetera. The idea is to get the crud off of the blades. If you want to use alcohol, go to the hardware store, not the drug store, and get denatured alcohol (personally I'd get naptha instead though).

SolaresLarrave

12-14-2007, 09:48

How about all the wrong uses of canned air (joe will wince here... he knows why)?

How about using a handkerchief to clean the mirror in an SLR?

How about the small eyeglass screwdriver used to tighten a piece, only to find out it's the wrong size/kind/tool?

f/stopblues

12-14-2007, 09:50

Thread can also be titled, "Things to look for when buying equipment from the following people" :p

dlove5

12-14-2007, 09:59

Using pliers where flexiclamps would have been the proper tool.

FallisPhoto

12-14-2007, 10:05

FallisPhoto

12-14-2007, 10:08

Some more of my favorites:

I once ran across a forum where someone was recommending that someone else clean his focusing screen (a plastic fresnel lens) with a toothbrush.

Another one, in the same thread, recommended cleaning it with ammonia (turns the plastic white).

Vickko

12-14-2007, 10:09

Bake camera in oven to loosen hardened grease, dry freshly applied black paint.

Vick

Vickko

12-14-2007, 10:10

Patch shutter hole with glue and patch, then tension shutter to make sure it stays flat.

Vick

FallisPhoto

12-14-2007, 10:10

Using pliers where flexiclamps would have been the proper tool.

For larger parts, a small strap wrench works well too.

FallisPhoto

12-14-2007, 10:13

Bake camera in oven to loosen hardened grease, dry freshly applied black paint.

Vick

Hey! I've seen that last one! If it doesn't just burst into flames, you get freshly applied black blisters! Then they mash the blisters down with their thumb and try to sell it on ebay.

FallisPhoto

12-14-2007, 10:15

Patch shutter hole with glue and patch, then tension shutter to make sure it stays flat.

Vick

Wow! The others are pretty bad ideas, but you can kind of understand why people did them. This one is just wrong though. If they know enough to know how to tension the shutter, they know that isn't going to work right.

kevin m

12-14-2007, 11:09

I've got a good one from back when I worked in a movie camera rental house.

A guy had an Arriflex SR on set that wouldn't come up to sync speed. He decided that his 12 volt belt battery didn't have enough "juice," so he stipped one end of the XLR cable and attached it via jumper cables to his car battery. The extra amperage gave him enough juice to ruin a couple of expensive circuit boards, and it made a nice smell, too. :eek: :D

Kim Coxon

12-14-2007, 11:23

6. If your film advance is stuck DON'T try to force it. If you do, you've probably just gone from "stuck" to "broken."

Or trying to free the shutter by "forcing" the selftimer back to it's off position

Others:

Removing very small screws out over a hard surface so they bounce onto the carpet.

Trying to clean SLR focus screens with any fluid.

Removing haze on lens elements with a dry cloth.

Kim

chikne

12-14-2007, 12:00

Take the fog out of your lens by blowing hot air with the hairdryer on it (me).

SolaresLarrave

12-14-2007, 12:54

Hey... I did clean a focusing screen with some nifty lens cleaner and a special cloth. The results were great.

It was also the Nikon F5 I recently purchased (not the one I sold). :) Or is it that this camera is so tough it can take this cleaning?

dlove5

12-14-2007, 13:12

FallisPhoto

12-14-2007, 13:17

How about taking a camera apart without good diagrams or taking good notes and/or pictures as you disassemble it.
________Where did this piece come from???????____________
________Why do I have one screw left, but it doesn't fit the remaining hole?????

That can be especially fun if it's a Canonet or a Hi-Matic. It's like having a three dimensional jigsaw puzzle that will keep you sweating for a month -- if you ever get it back together again.

FallisPhoto

12-14-2007, 13:27

Trying to clean SLR focus screens with any fluid. Kim

I've cleaned a few with a barely damp artist's watercolor brush, using distilled water and cleaning the brush every minute or two. You have to go over it about a hundred times, because you can only put enough pressure on it to barely bend the sable hair brush, but it works, eventually. Last one I did like that (Yashica TL Electro) looked like it had been somehow spattered with some kind of soda pop. It was all over the inside of the mirror box. I'm just glad the mirror kept whatever it was from getting on the curtains, because I wouldn't have the slightest idea how to get it out of those.

FallisPhoto

12-14-2007, 13:29

A guy did that over here a couple of weeks ago, but it was a Dslr that had been out in wet weather.

Does it look like an electronic taco now?

FallisPhoto

12-14-2007, 13:30

Or trying to free the shutter by "forcing" the selftimer back to it's off position

Others:

Removing very small screws out over a hard surface so they bounce onto the carpet.

Trying to clean SLR focus screens with any fluid.

Removing haze on lens elements with a dry cloth.

Kim

Unless it has just been CLAd, using the self timer in the first place is a bad idea.

Cale Arthur

12-14-2007, 13:44

Unless it has just been CLAd, using the self timer in the first place is a bad idea.
Here, here.. and i'm a firm believer in the notion that the use of screwdrivers/pliers/wrenches/crowbars, etc. should be governed by the state licensing commision. I'd be comfy adding most lubricants to that list as well. It's completely horrifying what certain people can make happen with these items..

--c--

shadowfox

12-14-2007, 14:19

How about leaving any crucial/fragile parts in precarious position thinking "I'd come back to it in a minute..." and having your elbow/sleeve/invisible third arm knock it off its perch and send it diving into the hardwood floor.

Kim Coxon

12-14-2007, 14:22

Hardwood floor is easy. It's the smallest screw or spring in the carpet that gets me. :bang:

Kim

How about leaving any crucial/fragile parts in precarious position thinking "I'd come back to it in a minute..." and having your elbow/sleeve/invisible third arm knock it off its perch and send it diving into the hardwood floor.

rogue_designer

12-14-2007, 14:25

Hardwood floor is easy. It's the smallest screw or spring in the carpet that gets me. :bang:

Kim

Clearly your floor isn't 80 years old with large cracks between the boards like mine.

I've lost quarters between the boards. Never mind small screws.

FallisPhoto

12-14-2007, 18:17

Hardwood floor is easy. It's the smallest screw or spring in the carpet that gets me. :bang:

Kim

I have a big magnet for the steel parts that do that. I think the non-steel parts quickly duck into some kind of worm hole.

FallisPhoto

12-14-2007, 18:19

Here, here.. and i'm a firm believer in the notion that the use of screwdrivers/pliers/wrenches/crowbars, etc. should be governed by the state licensing commision. I'd be comfy adding most lubricants to that list as well. It's completely horrifying what certain people can make happen with these items..

--c--

Well, I just believe that certain people should not be allowed to come within 100 feet of a vintage camera, much less own one.

FallisPhoto

12-14-2007, 18:25

Removing very small screws out over a hard surface so they bounce onto the carpet.

I have this cafeteria tray, lined with self-sticking felt. Works great, unless you somehow knock the whole tray off the bench. Hasn't happened yet, but according to Murphy's Law, it is going to.

FallisPhoto

12-14-2007, 18:26

Thread can also be titled, "Things to look for when buying equipment from the following people" :p

Do you have anyone in mind?

FallisPhoto

12-14-2007, 18:36

How about taking a camera apart without good diagrams or taking good notes and/or pictures as you disassemble it.
________Where did this piece come from???????____________
________Why do I have one screw left, but it doesn't fit the remaining hole?????

The one I like is when you take a piece off of the camera and a couple of shims that you didn't know were there fall out of it and you have not got a clue where they came from. You know it is going to be a long day then.

FallisPhoto

12-14-2007, 18:43

Just remembered another one: Cleaning semitransparent mirrors with whatever the heck it is that these guys use that takes the silvering off -- and then they wonder why their rangefinders are so dim. I wonder if it's silver polish? I've found several of those on ebay. Thank God for Edmund Scientific and their beam splitter mirrors.

greyhoundman

12-14-2007, 19:23

The beamsplitters corrode. Then when they touch them ever so gently, the oxides come off.
Most splitters have a metal vapor deposited on the glass.

FallisPhoto

12-15-2007, 09:00

The beamsplitters corrode. Then when they touch them ever so gently, the oxides come off.
Most splitters have a metal vapor deposited on the glass.

There are several types. The type you are talking about uses aluminum vapors, deposited on glass. The type I am talking about looks very slightly blue and is a type of film that is bonded to the glass. It is a lot more durable. This doesn't mean you can clean it with a cloth, but you can at least handle it to the extent you need to in order to cut it up and get it in place without the stuff coming off on your fingers.

(much later): i just realized what you were talking about. I thought you were criticizing my choice of using beam splitter mirrors to replace rangefinder mirrors. Instead you were explaining why the silvering comes off. I don't think some of the ones I have tried to fix were "touched ever so gently" but were all but scrubbed with scouring powder.

Anglekat

01-09-2008, 15:09

FallisPhoto

01-11-2008, 07:45

This whole thread has reassured me that the two bunches of bananas that i call "my hands" will never, ever, disassemble a camera.:D :D

But i have total admiration for those of you who love to tinker. :)

I just started doing it one day -- and created a bunch of "parts" cameras until I finally figured out what I was doing. I think that a great many of the bits in most tinkerer's parts bins came from their earlier efforts. After awhile, you become fairly competent though, and eventually you get pretty good at it.

Pherdinand

01-11-2008, 08:09

nikonhswebmaster

01-11-2008, 08:19

Cameras are not hard to work on, but there are a lot of small parts to contend with, and unless you have spare parts, losing even one small screw can be a major disaster.

FallisPhoto

01-12-2008, 11:52

Cameras are not hard to work on, but there are a lot of small parts to contend with, and unless you have spare parts, losing even one small screw can be a major disaster.

Yeah, that's where "parts cameras" come in handy. Sometimes not all the screws are there in the first place, either because somebody else worked on it before you got it or (rarely) because it just worked its way out and got lost. I've used screws from junked Minoltas, Yashicas and such on any number of different branded cameras.

It isn't that difficult, with a few exceptions (Canonets, Hi-Matics and a couple of others are pretty complicated), but you do have to be careful, take notes as you go, and take your time. Above all, you have to learn to STOP when you run into a snag and wait until you have either figured it out or asked someone about it. It isn't something impatient people can just blunder through, and you have to have enough confidence to start on it in the first place.

FallisPhoto

01-12-2008, 12:02

the metal vapor based beam splitters have only a VERY thin layer of metal. Less than 10 nanometers, depending on which metal.
No wonder they are so fragile on their surface.
Aluminum is also easily corroding, at this thickness especially (but it's cheaper). Properly it should be done with silver, gold, tantallum, titanium, platinum... These are quite corrosion resistant, and stick very well to glass.

The only ones I am familiar with are the ones that came in old rangefinders (incredibly delicate, most of them), the new aluminum vapor beam splitters and the type with film. Of those, the film type is my favorite to work with, simply because I don't have special equipment and I can handle it enough to cut it to size with a Dremel and then install it without damaging it. To my knowlege, I've never tried the "noble metal" beam splitters you mention though, and for all I know, they might be equally easy to work with.

rick oleson

01-24-2008, 20:08

the cool thing about plastic cameras is that if they get wet you can dry them in a microwave

: ) =

SolaresLarrave

01-24-2008, 21:19

To insist on tinkering with cameras when you have a cold, and sneeze while you're holding small camera bits and pieces in your hands can be a pretty bad idea too.

rick oleson

01-25-2008, 03:15

Okay, here's one I actually did .... travel security regluations make it impossible to repeat it today, fortunately .... disassemble a camera on the tray table of an airliner in flight (particularly, a camera with shutter springs that go in from the top so that they can go flying over the seat backs if they get loose)

i did get the camera to run though, and i still have it.....

FallisPhoto

01-25-2008, 11:00

the cool thing about plastic cameras is that if they get wet you can dry them in a microwave

: ) =

Rick, all I can say is that I really hope that nobody here took that seriously. I can see it now -- five years down the road -- "But Rick said it was okay!"

I've run into some pretty dumb stuff before, but I'm having a hard time believing ... uh ... well ... come to think of it, I guess there are people dumb enough to do that.

I bought a Ciroflex once with the focusing rod frozen in place, with the faceplate stuck in the out position. This was a bought as a junker and all I wanted was the viewfinder off of the top, to replace one that had rusted. Of course I tried to free the rod anyway, soaking it with Liquid Wrench, to no effect. Anyway, while I was looking at it, I discovered that apparently, whoever had it before me had beaten the faceplate against the floor or stood on it or maybe put it in a vice in an effort to free it, because the faceplate was visibly concave. The end of the rod was slightly mushroomed too, so apparently he had resorted to a hammer first (or maybe that is what bent the faceplate -- must have really been slamming it). I'm pretty sure that guy would have tried the microwave.

Okay, here's one I actually did .... travel security regluations make it impossible to repeat it today, fortunately .... disassemble a camera on the tray table of an airliner in flight (particularly, a camera with shutter springs that go in from the top so that they can go flying over the seat backs if they get loose)

i did get the camera to run though, and i still have it.....

It scares me just to do this over a carpeted floor. What were you thinking?

FallisPhoto

02-02-2008, 11:39

Here, here.. and i'm a firm believer in the notion that the use of screwdrivers/pliers/wrenches/crowbars, etc. should be governed by the state licensing commision. I'd be comfy adding most lubricants to that list as well. It's completely horrifying what certain people can make happen with these items..

--c--

There is a post somewhere here in RFF asking what kind of oil should be used to lubricate shutter blades.

dee

02-02-2008, 11:49

Is this the recommended list for the majority of ex-USSR camera restorers ?

FallisPhoto

02-02-2008, 12:10

Is this the recommended list for the majority of ex-USSR camera restorers ?

That just reminded me of another one: I've read about people running pumice toothpaste through the gears of Soviet cameras to smooth them up.

rick oleson

02-02-2008, 14:34

It scares me just to do this over a carpeted floor. What were you thinking?

Well, I had all this time in flight with nothing else to do, and the shutter needed work, and I had the screwdrivers in my carryon....

I did just about freak though when the shutter spring went over the seat back in front of me. Luckily it was an empty seat so it didn't get snagged in somebody's hair, and I managed to get it back. I've done several (almost equally ill-advised) in motel rooms, but I never tried another one in an airplane.

FallisPhoto

02-02-2008, 16:32

Well, I had all this time in flight with nothing else to do, and the shutter needed work, and I had the screwdrivers in my carryon....

I did just about freak though when the shutter spring went over the seat back in front of me. Luckily it was an empty seat so it didn't get snagged in somebody's hair, and I managed to get it back. I've done several (almost equally ill-advised) in motel rooms, but I never tried another one in an airplane.

The thing that freaked me the most was when I had just removed the lens from a Hi-Matic, set it down ------- and three shims fell out of the back of it. God alone knows what their original positions were. The tolerances in Hi-Matics are incredibly tight and I never could figure out how to get them back in so the camera would go back together. That's how I came to have all my extra 7s parts.