Speed graphic spring tension & storage - tight or loose?

[walter23]

I have recently acquired an anniversary speed graphic with the working cloth focal plane shutter.

The speed graphic has a spring tension control as well as a shutter curtain aperture control. The two give you your shutter speed (higher tension & narrow window = faster shutter speed). I'm not sure how to store it though; should I leave the spring at the loosest setting, or tension it up? It does seem a bit hesitant at the very lowest tension setting (and I've been storing it with the spring released to its loosest position). Could it be that I should store it tightly wound to keep the spring coiled up tightly? Or would that ultimately make the spring even more loose?

[Glenn Thoreson]

Always store your camera with the tension on 1 and the curtain closed. Storing it with tension on the spring will eventually cause the spring to lose it's tension. As old as it is, the spring won't like that at all. You can put a little zip back in your shutter pretty easily. There are two little round thingies (tech term) on the side by the strap. You'll see a hole in each one. Using a toothpick, place one drop of 3-in-1 oil in each hole. You can lube the inner bearings by removing the back and using your toothpick to oil the roller axles. They're a bit fiddly to get at, due to the roller flange, but it's not hard. On the tension plate, you will see the end of that axle sticking out. One drop, wipe off the excess. A drop where the winding knob meets the plate, and wipe. If you do this, you will notice a marked improvement in your shutter's behavior. Enjoy your camera. I love 'em.

[rknewcomb]

A couple of comments:
1) Glenn is very correct when he says "one drop", do not ignor this part - more oil is not better. Also, use the toothpick idea and not be tempted to apply the oil directly from the can.
2) If/when you have the spring back off to lube the curtain axles, take a soft clean artist type brush and wisk out the channels that the curtain travels in - they are often full of dust and dirt. Do this BEFORE you oil.
I also agree, they are great cameras!

[Glenn Thoreson]

Almost as good as a red Printex.....

[walter23]

Always store your camera with the tension on 1 and the curtain closed. Storing it with tension on the spring will eventually cause the spring to lose it's tension. As old as it is, the spring won't like that at all. You can put a little zip back in your shutter pretty easily. There are two little round thingies (tech term) on the side by the strap. You'll see a hole in each one. Using a toothpick, place one drop of 3-in-1 oil in each hole. You can lube the inner bearings by removing the back and using your toothpick to oil the roller axles. They're a bit fiddly to get at, due to the roller flange, but it's not hard. On the tension plate, you will see the end of that axle sticking out. One drop, wipe off the excess. A drop where the winding knob meets the plate, and wipe. If you do this, you will notice a marked improvement in your shutter's behavior. Enjoy your camera. I love 'em.

Thanks Glenn, I wouldn't have thought you could lubricate it that easily. I may give that a try. The shutter works pretty well actually (just hangs a bit on the very lowest tension setting) but a little dab of oil would probably improve it.

[walter23]

2) If/when you have the spring back off to lube the curtain axles, take a soft clean artist type brush and wisk out the channels that the curtain travels in - they are often full of dust and dirt. Do this BEFORE you oil.

I actually already removed the back once, to get what I thought was a bit of dust in the corners of the bellows. When I looked at the shutter curtain channels I saw what looked like 10 years worth of pocket lint (probably 50 years worth of camera lint in reality). I gave it a (non-contact) vacuuming, but I may open it up again and make sure its totally cleaned up before lubing it.

Thanks for all the advice.

[Glenn Thoreson]

Clean it good. All that dust goes right onto your film, causing the utterence of bad words.

[Donald Qualls]

Minor amendment to above -- store with curtain *open* rather than closed. This isn't significantly more tension than the final closed position after a "T" exposure, but protects the curtain from either mechanical damage via broken ground glass or objects dropped inside while changing lens boards, or from burned holes if the camera should face the sun with the front shutter open and focused to infinity.

[Sevo]

I would not worry too much about it. Tensioned storage should not do a 20th century spring any harm. Below the yield point, spring steel will not creep and never lose its tensile strength through use. And the way FP shutters are built, you can hardly strain their main spring beyond that - pulling, you'd first tear the shutter cloth, pushing, you can't exercise any force.

In any case, none of my old LF focal plane shutters shows any evidence of spring weakening - even those that still are slow or irregular do build up a spring tension in the same range as the fully working ones.