Soft focus velostigmat series II

[Fotoguy20d]

I just picked up a 12" in studio shutter. Glass is good, shutter is the best studio I've ever seen, but the soft focus mechanism is frozen. There are no dings or dents so it's just dirty or corroded. Anyone have any experience in unfreezing one of these?

Thanks,
Dan

[Jon Shiu]

If there is a gap, try some PB Blaster, or the like. Then use brute force to turn it. Like a hose clamp.

Jon

[Fotoguy20d]

Anyone have a good reason why I can't soak the front cell in wd40 or liquid wrench? It's not a cemented pair so no balsam to harm, and I don't think either of those would hurt the uncoated glass.

Can anyone tell me how to disassemble this cell?

Thanks,
Dan

[Jon Shiu]

You can take it apart from the back of the cell by unscrewing the retainer and removing the rear element. Or you can unscrew the front trim ring (beauty ring) and take out the front element.

Jon

[Fotoguy20d]

Thanks Jon. That's what I thought. Those are tight too - I'll drill a couple of small holes into the beauty ring and take a spanner to it. For the back, I'll try a wooden cylinder and rubber pad.

The outside is covered in tape residue. I hope whoever didn't want that SF adjustment moved didn't also glue it in place.

Dan

[swmcl]

Hi,

I've done exactly that to the same lens. I had to drill into the beauty ring. I've also used kerosene on a number of occasions on older non-coated lenses and then other chemicals to clean up. I see no ill effects - except for dissolving paint !! The paint was flaky crap anyway so repainting was necessary. A good bituminous tar ...

Some of this response is a little tongue-in-cheek !

[swmcl]

I might also point out that my old Velostigmat does not do the soft focus hokus pokus like a newer one does. There must've been a design change somewhere along the line. I pitch the design change around 1930 or so at a wild guess.

The above means you may go to a good amount of effort to find that you end up with a lens that doesn't do what you want it to do. Not that you can test for it beforehand ...

[Fotoguy20d]

This one is a pretty old one I think. They made both SF and non over a period of many years in the early 1900s. This one was clearly SF. I let it sit in a metal cup in a half inch of liquid wrench for around ten days and tonight the front ring turned as it should, and, all the nasty tape residue is gone. Now it's soaking the back so I can free the glass for cleaning.

Interesting that it only rotates around 180 degrees. The Ilex series A that I have rotates just shy of 360. Either they wanted more diffusion or they used a different pitch. Looking forward to comparing the two.

[Mark Sawyer]

It can be "let off the leash", if you will...

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?57385-Velostigmat-Series-II-Info-and-Images

[Fotoguy20d]

Thanks to all for the comments. It took a while-the beauty ring finally turned tonight. The set screw came right out and both pieces of glass are now clean and the uncorked lens ready to shoot.

Thanks
Dan