Graflex.org

financephotog · Joined: 18 Feb 2021 Posts: 34 Location: Florida

OK, so reassembly so far so good, until it became time to install the retarding lever with spring attached. I'm having a hard time doing that, because it seems like I have to compress the spring at the same time as inserting the lever on its mounting post, in such a way that the slot catches the notch on the retarding wheel.

I never took the spring off, but reading the manual, it occurred to me that the spring might be on the wrong way around.

https://flic.kr/p/2kXW9W8

The manual says to put the short end against the case, but I think this way the long end would go against the case. Does the spring need to be flipped? If so, maybe that's causing the difficulty?

45PSS · Posted: Tue May 11, 2021 5:21 am Post subject:

Springs mounted like that have a tendency to rotate on the post and appear to be incorrectly installed. The long end will lift over the short edge of the lever allowing the spring to rotate into position.
_________________
The best camera ever made is the one that YOU enjoy using and produces the image quality that satifies YOU.

financephotog · Joined: 18 Feb 2021 Posts: 34 Location: Florida

OK, back working on this thing after a while. In the reassembly process, I got to the shutter test in stage 3, and to me, this looks pretty good (and much better than before):

https://flic.kr/p/2m2Dr3k

Question: the manual, at 35.e.5 says that with the shutter released, a slight clearance should be maintained between blade lever hook of main lever assembly, and revolving ring assembly stud. To me it looks like the blade lever hook is all the way against the revolving ring stud. Is it worth removing the main lever again and filing that down, as the book says? I don't have a small file but I do have sandpaper that might enable me to do that.

Is it going to cause problems if there is no clearance? Looking at my disassembly photos, I don't think there was any clearance originally.

45PSS · Posted: Sun May 30, 2021 10:23 pm Post subject:

comparing the shutter open/close to a second hand as your video played it is in tolerance for 1 second. Leave well enough alone.
You've done a good job.
_________________
The best camera ever made is the one that YOU enjoy using and produces the image quality that satifies YOU.

financephotog · Joined: 18 Feb 2021 Posts: 34 Location: Florida

Thank you, @45PSS.

Then I will leave it alone and continue with the assembly. Thank you so much for all your guidance thus far!! This is a fun and incredibly interesting project.

financephotog · Joined: 18 Feb 2021 Posts: 34 Location: Florida

I think I'm done!

B and T work, and flash sync does too. The last remaining issue was not having been able to set to 400, which was fixed by greasing the high-speed spring.

Quick demos.

B and T:

https://flic.kr/p/2m3aHPs

Flash sync (with a multi-meter set to Ohms, to detect a circuit when closed):

https://flic.kr/p/2m35dYx

Thank you so much for the help, @45PSS. Couldn't have done it without you!