Central pneumatic shutter

[Jim C.]

Got one of these as part of a grab bag of photo stuff off eBay and I finally found
some time and the nerve to open it up to inspect and clean, I was quite
surprised at how simple they are, but I think there's something missing
inside. The shutter works and the knob that controls the shutter
is marked Z, M, O, the "O" mark is a no brainer as it keeps the blades
open, not too sure about "Z" which I guess is the equivalent of "T", the
"M" setting does the same as "Z" which I guess is wrong.

Anyway, opening it up I see there's a cam connected to the knob, and it has a
hole, it's not threaded and I don't see where else there could be a connection
to make it go instantaneous ( if this shutter does that ).
Anyone ( IanG, Steven Tribe ? ;) ) have one of these and can tell me the
correct behavior of this shutter ?

896068960889613

[BrianShaw]

What elegance in design that shutter is!

[Jim C.]

Yes, they are elegant in design, but feels very fragile, the rear case material is likely cast zinc
it's very light, the front might be the same.

[Jim C.]

I've sort of figured it out, it does have a instant action, but there is something worn out
or the piston action isn't correct inside, if I rotate the one of the halves slightly I get instant,
but it's instant for Z too.

I found a thread here on the forum where a fellow member took a similar one apart and cleaned it
and for the life of me I can't seem to find that thread again, I thought I bookmarked it but I guess not,
some of the attached pics were of the diassembled shutter sitting in a green tray, jog anyone's memory ?

[evan clarke]

I bought a dozen of these, the guy had them on sale for $25, brand new like. Most of the stuff can come off and it cannbe retrofitted to use a cable release. I am using the solenoid minus all the mounting stuff and a cool electronic controller I found. I have one mounted on a Lee holder.

280776433241 on eBay

[IanG]

Jim, I took something similar apart in the Autumn and posted here on the Forum, however I didn't photograph the ineterior, should have done so.

I stripped it down and soaked everything in WD-40 then cleaned it off thoroughly, finally rinsing the bits with meths then Isopropyl alcohol. On initial re-assembly I found it better but the M & Z settings didn't alaways change despote moving the dial, so I cleaned the moving parts again and re-painted the casing. Now it's very smooth and consistent on the Instananeous setting M. O opens the shutter manually and Z on mine works like B rather than T. I very lightly lubricated a few areas on the control part with the spring etc and this made a big difference.

An issue with these shutters seems to oxidation of the casing, enough to hinder smooth operation, I cleaned the casing minus the shutter blades with a mild abrasive cleaner, used for household use, srubbing with a tooth brush. Mine also had dried up old lubricants.

Ian

[Jim Noel]

"Z" = time
"M" = Momentary
"O" = Open

[Jim C.]

IanG, I found your thread but it's the one with pics that I'm looking for, I think the 'elbow' of the piston linkage
is worn out or the other part that has the leaf spring, if I rotate the case halves slightly instant sort of works,
I wanted to compare innards of mine to the posted pics. Mine is pretty clean inside I'll give the WD 40 a try.
There's certainly a lot of posts with the word shutter ;)

Evan, I remember those shutters, Surplus Shed sold out of them ;)

[evan clarke]

IanG, I found your thread but it's the one with pics that I'm looking for, I think the 'elbow' of the piston linkage
is worn out or the other part that has the leaf spring, if I rotate the case halves slightly instant sort of works,
I wanted to compare innards of mine to the posted pics. Mine is pretty clean inside I'll give the WD 40 a try.
There's certainly a lot of posts with the word shutter ;)

Evan, I remember those shutters, Surplus Shed sold out of them ;)

The people I bought mine from said they have about 800 of them. I bought mine around last November.

[IanG]

Jim, I'll post some images of the interior of mine later, just need to resize them.

I could use a couple of those shutters Evan's mentioned but they want silly money in terms of postage to the UK.

Ian

[IanG]

This is my shutter, internal view, works like a LUC but unknown maker:

90141

90142

90143

The images may help, but if not maybe help someone else in the future.

Ian

[Steven Tribe]

Well, well - just found this thread! Thought it was on Packards!

Thanks for raising the topic.
I went looking for mine and the box it was lying on, and found that the box contained another one (NIB!) that I had never discovered.

I have to look at the older one internally again as there is a small line of light between 2 leaves sometimes after use.

I am surprised that Calcolsky's (ex surplus shed) thingies can be used, as these seem to lack the mounting system for front mounting on lens rims. My 2 were replacements for a small Guerry barndoor shutter which had a solidified rubber expanding cylinder.

The older one is identical to yours internally (but has flash synch) and will post photos when I strip it. These are pretty big - 6" across
The Zettor must be post ww2 and has the additional S function (closed).
Placing the marker (the red dot) at positions between M and S appear to provide selection of F values - like the old Studio Shutter used to do when they were new!

[Jim C.]

IanG, Steven, thanks for posting the pics, Ian's Luc shutter seems a lot more complicated than mine
yours may be also, the one one that I stumbled across seems the closest to mine
and I'm still looking for that thread !

In the mean time, I cleaned mine with some WD40, lacquer thinner and elbow grease
and it operates just a bit better, but the instant still doesn't work unless I twist the
housing halves just a tiny bit.

Here's my shutter porn all cleaned except the back case ;)

[Steven Tribe]

There is more variation than I expected in these front leaf shutters.

Mine is mostly like the OP's - with 6 leaves. But is has all mechanical items on the main body.

The release system is designed for either pneumatic or cable.
The release is a horrible brass small monster thing made out of many parts with 3 springs - reminds me of focal plane release mechanisms!

The system is very sluggish if there is the least friction/oil, because the contact area is so large.

[Jim C.]

HAH ! Found the thread I was looking for!
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?58707-need-some-help-with-this-old-shutter/page2&highlight=luc%2C+shutter
Alex's shutter is dead ringer for mine, except for the extra spring.