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View Full Version : Stiff rotating back on Toyo 45C



greenbank
24-Jan-2014, 10:45
I've just bought a Toyo 45C monorail camera - still at the "playing with my new toy" stage, no film shot yet - and I find that its rotating back is extremely stiff to move. No sticking or grittiness in the movement, but it takes both hands to budge it at all, one on the rear standard and one on the back itself. The release button works fine, it's just that the back doesn't want to turn.

Is this a problem for a skilled repair-person, or is there some way I can get into the "works" and ease up the friction in some way?

I've sent an e-mail to Toyo US, but no response after several days. I've trawled this forum, but can't find that anyone has asked (let alone answered!) this question before.

If there's nothing I can do about it, fair enough - being a newbie to LF, I will live with what I've got, which is still a very fine machine. Everything else on the camera works perfectly, and I'm looking forward to years of exploration and learning. But if I can get the back to work properly (given that it's a "feature" of this model), that would be even better.

Jac@stafford.net
24-Jan-2014, 10:58
It might be locked down.
Is there also a locking lever on the right side (looking at the back?)
Turn it down, or clockwise.

greenbank
25-Jan-2014, 05:29
Got you.

There is an "intermediate locking lever" below the screen (not to the right); it's black plastic, whereas the Toyo manual shows it as shiny silver, which is why I hadn't even found it before. I'd thought it was to do with changing the back, but you're right; it releases the rotation. The "release button" is, it transpires, merely to click-stop the back into horizontal or vertical position.

The movement is still a lot stiffer than I'd like, and if there's an easy way of lessening the friction I'd like to know about it.

Thanks for pointing this out. I guess the moral is: when in doubt, read the instructions again. Facepalm!

greenbank
24-Feb-2014, 19:33
Update: problem fixed, with help from Jac and (at last) from the guys at Toyo US.

Toyo recommended silicone lubricant, but didn't say exactly where to put it (except "on moving parts"). Yeah, well, somewhere inside the back are the moving parts...

After finding the locking lever (thanks, Jac!), I managed to turn the back 45 degrees; this reveals a circular groove which is the outside part of the "turntable" mechanism. I dribbled a little silicone lubricant into the groove with a cotton bud (even with a fine spray-can nozzle, the spray pattern is far too extensive on its own). Doing this at each corner, and rotating the back several times, has apparently got the lubricant where it was needed but nowhere else.

Now the back moves smoothly and easily - obviously we don't want it to be a roulette wheel, but it now does what it's supposed to, without serious force.