Kodak Retina frame counter spring repair
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- Опубліковано 16 вер 2024
- A method for repairing broken frame-counter springs on the Retina Ia and IIa cameras.
Consumables used servicing camera bodies:
I use naphtha (cigarette lighter fluid) for cleaning metal parts. CRC Heavy Duty Lectra Clean for dried grease that the naphtha won’t dissolve. A generic wax and grease remover to soak mechanical parts prior to cleaning in an ultrasonic cleaner. Glass cleaned with normal domestic glass cleaner.
Parts are lubricated with Inox MX6 (a synthetic grease), Rocol Dry Molybdenum paste, MicroLubrol Helimax XP helicoid grease, graphite powder, or graphite grease as needed.
Leatherettes are glued back with Ados F2 adhesive.
Consumables used servicing shutter and lens assemblies:
Naphtha (cigarette lighter fluid), or occasionally CRC Heavy Duty Lectra Clean. Lenses cleaned with normal domestic glass cleaner.
Parts are lubricated Rocol Dry Molybdenum paste, MicroLubrol Helimax XP helicoid grease, graphite powder, or graphite grease as needed.
Thank you, for your generosity in sharing this to keep these lovely cameras going for many years. Hope you reward yourself with a few good bears!
Very impressive and most ingenious Chris.
Yup!
I'm one of those who found a piece of spring steel of the appropriate thickness, trimmed it down to size, silver soldered it to the broken counter spring, then spent a great deal of time trimming and bending until the counter worked as new. You got this done in a fraction of the time it took me.
Well done, Chris!
Glenn
Superb piece of lateral thinking and implementation. Thank you!
There are some smaller sized spot welders nowadays that can spot weld two spots at the same time and you can hold the entire thing with one hand. No foot pedal needed.
Great idea using the spring from watches... never thought of that! :)
Bravissimo
Even this repair requires having an original part. Such a puzzle. I wonder if a complete replacement part could be fabricated by bending a bit of steel guitar string into the appropriate 3 dimensional shape. My Retina iia is still in good condition but I treat it gently fearing each photo could be the last. Worrying about this broken part dampens the fun of shooting an otherwise great camera.
Having the original part is the easy bit, a broken original part will be in your camera just waiting to be repaired. The springs will all fail eventually, but the problems that contribute to early failure include build-up of dust and grit in the counter mechanism, or drop-damage to the top of the counter, both faults creating much more friction. If more effort is required to move the counter ring because of the above problems, the spring will flex a little more with each stroke of the film advance lever, eventually breaking quicker than it might have done in ideal conditions. The number one method of breaking the spring quickly is to attempt to turn the frame counter backwards.