Originally Posted by Bruce Barlow
There's nothing a good finishing Nail cant fix.
There's nothing a good finishing Nail cant fix.
JB Weld is good for lots of things but with that small surface area and the torque of tightening it this isn't going to work. If it does it won't be for long. Drill it and tap in and put a screw in the top. I am sure Richard could do this, it is really basic machinist's work.
I have seem more simple repairs become real expenses night mares because someone took bad advice and try to do the repair.
Richard T Ritter
www.lg4mat.net
Thank you all for your suggestions. I'm already giving up the idea of simply gluing the two elements together.
Can't tell how thick the lever arm is or what material it's made of, but if it happens to be chromed steel and an 1/8" (3.5mm) thickness or less, you may have a heck of a time drilling, let alone tapping the threads yourself without breaking a tap off in the hole. Even if you could, such a small setscrew would be difficult to torque adequately, you'd need a flat spot on the shaft and it's less than an ideal solution if it's loose on the shaft to begin with.
My suggestion would to disassemble it, take it to a machinist look to ask whether he(she?) could gnurl the post and then press-fit the lever back onto the post with a press.
Though you might first want to assure the right orientation when it goes back together by lightly making a match-mark on both pieces with a sharp scratch awl before taking it apart.
Will probably be hard getting this done with glue - but if youŽll try here is something that often works well:
Get some superglue/cyanoacrylate. Then cut out a small piece of cloth that covers the area of contact. Apply rather a lot on one of the surfaces, with the piece of cloth in place. Be sure that it soaks completely, and the n quickly press the two pieces together.
BEWARE: it gets hot! And you might get damp from the glue in your eyes - if you are not used to working with the stuff then gloves + goggles is a good idea...
Sometimes this make an incredibly strong bond...
Super/cyanoacrylate glue doesn't hold bellow freezing temperature, becomes brittle and good for nothing.
One of my other past times is restoring antique tractors. JB Weld is a two part epoxy that is incredibly strong, and is used in all sorts of metal to metal repairs. I think it will work just fine for you, but it may not be pretty. You will want to build up around the joint, as well as apply it to the break. Available in any fine hardware store.
Regards,
Kurt
JB weld was the first thing that came to my mind, but after seeing the photo, I don't think I would try it.
JB weld is amazing stuff though.
Finally found some time to get it done.
I decided to solder the two parts. Any mechanical work would be difficult, since the parts are very small and the whole mechanism would have to be disassembled. I have always problems with putting things together after taking them apart.
I used silver solder (soft, not regular silver solder alloy), that has a melting temperature of about 221 deg C and consists of 3.6% Ag and 96.4% Sn. It is called Stay-Brite and comes with a bottle of flux. Regular silver solder is stronger, but requires heating the elements to much higher temperature. The common solder used in electronics (based on Pb) is too soft, can not be used for making mechanical connections.
To heat up the elements the micro torch was used - the smallest I could find, powered by butane lighter fluid. As can be seen on 1st picture, camera elements were protected from flame by several layers of aluminum foil.
The solder alloy I used does not seem to be of eutectic type - it melts at a certain temperature, but you must heat it more to become fully liquid, so it will wet the surfaces well. A strong connection is formed when the liquid alloy is pulled into all cavities by capillary action.
I hope, that tips presented in this post may be useful, unfortunately large format photography cameras are not made to be indestructible.
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