[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
My girlfriend found me a service manual for the Spotmatic the other day, and is ordering SPII and Takumar Lens service manuals. One of the reasons I started collecting spotmatics is the idea that they were simple enough
for a guy like me to fix.
Probably.
I've been reading through it. It basically tells you how to get things
back together once you've taken them apart! One of the things I'm noticing is that there are a number of specialized tools required (to say nothing of parts, which I'm expecting to loot from ex-spotmatics).
Many of the special tools you can work around or fabricate. A very few you need to get. Check with the Pentax distributor. Strangely, I have found that tools are sometimes still in stock long after the parts are gone.
I've found catalogs that sell digital shutter-speed testers ($ouch!) and
I'm sure they will also sell me itty bitty screws and screwdrivers.
The manual, however, occasionally calls for "special tool XFS-2352-SDF-5b"
and stuff like that. Often, these seem to be designed to remove fixing
rings and such.
There are a few websites that tell you how to make at least a basic shutter speed tester. Calument used to sell a Northwest Electonics tester for under $100, I do not know if they still do. Basic but it works (I have one).
Tools, you need less than you would think from the catalogs.
*dial calipers
*basic small screwdriver set,
*pair of straight tweezers,
*pair of curved tweezers,
*pair of small long needle nose pliers,
*pair of small wire cutters (dikes).
*watch oil,
*grease,
*cleaning fluid (I've been using lighter fluid).
*A set of lens spanners,
*For small fasteners with the two holes in them (like on self timer levers) you can us a pair of drafting dividers (ground down the points so they don't slip and scratch things) as a spanner.
* round toothpicks (great non-maring burnishers)
* smail brushes
Other than that you need the lens cleaning things you probably already have. Oh, yes get one of those fiberglass contact cleaning pens, I could not do without it. There is no need to buy the most expensive tools, they stand up better over the long haul, but you are not thinking of doing this professionally are you?
Where the heck do I get this sort of thing in 2004? Presumably the repair guys get the repair stuff for each model as it comes out and after a decade or so they have a big cabinet labeled "pentax-specific wrench doodads" that they eventually throw out when they stop seeing the older cameras in the shop.
Answered above
What sort of repairs actually tend to be done on the older cameras? It looks like a CLA requires a shutter-speed checker, special lubes and cleaning solutions, tensioning doodads, and so on.
You are about right. Other than that, film wind mechanisms, and electics are the most frequent repairs. Luckily you are looking at non-electronic cameras. Out of production custom IC''s are imposible to get except from parts donor cameras. For aligning mirrors and focus screens you can use a SLR with a long lens as a collimator. There are a couple of articles on the web that will tell you how to do that.
What's on my wish list? A basic optical bench which I will eventually make for myself. And a mini-lathe, not that expensive if you have any real income, but that is for pretty advanced repairs where you have to make your own parts.
DJE
-- graywolf http://graywolfphoto.com
"You might as well accept people as they are, you are not going to be able to change them anyway."
