Sick camera advice.

[rivermandan]

Hello again all. Today my crown graphic arrived in much worse condition then i was hoping for. so here are a few questions I hope you guys have answers to.

1)Bellows are in good shape, but there is a small crack about the size of a grain of rice that is letting light through. What would you suggest repairing it with?

2)the moron who sold this camera must have tried speeding up the shutter by oiling it, and I guess you can see where I am going with this. When it first arrived, both the aperture blades and the shutter blades were completely covered in oil, and the shutter wasn't closing properly. I opened it up and spend a good two hours gently wiping the blades off with contact cleaner soaked q-tips, firing the shutter, wiping them off again, firing the shutter, ad infinitum. Now it seems to be working properly, but there is still a small amount of oil on the blades that I can't help because there must be a pool of oil inside the shutter itself. Do you think this will slow my shutter down after a while again, or should I not bother about this last little bit of oil?

3)actually that's it. thanks in advance guys!

p.s. shutter is the kodak made graphic supermatic shutter that comes with the ektar 127.

[Bob Gentile]

"... Bellows are in good shape, but there is a small crack about the size of a grain of rice that is letting light through. What would you suggest repairing it with...?"

Bostick and Sullivan sells a patch kit (http://www.bostick-sullivan.com/cart/search.php?mode=search&page=1). Never used it, so I can't personally vouch for it.


"... there must be a pool of oil inside the shutter itself. Do you think this will slow my shutter down after a while again, or should I not bother about this last little bit of oil...?"

I'd try to get everything as clean and dry as possible. There are some recent threads here discussing the use of naptha, lighter fluid, etc. for cleaning shutters. Check 'em out.

[Bob Salomon]

"Bellows are in good shape, but there is a small crack about the size of a grain of rice"
Then they are not in good shape. They leak light.

Patching as only a stop gap. The bellows should be replaced.

[David A. Goldfarb]

I think that's one of the shutters that you should NOT use naphtha, lighter fluid, or mineral spirits on, because the shutter blades are rubber rather than metal. Check graflex.org for what you can use to clean a Supermatic.

I've used the Bostick and Sullivan patch kit, and it works pretty well.

[Jim Noel]

if the hole is the size you indicate paint it with a few coats of artists acrylic paint, blck of course. it stops light and remains pliable. If larger than a grain of rice, either the B&S kit or a new bellows.

[Bob Gentile]

"... I think that's one of the shutters that you should NOT use naphtha, lighter fluid, or mineral spirits on, because the shutter blades are rubber rather than metal..."

Oops! My bad! Thanks for pointing that out, David.

[Brian Ellis]

Can you tell whether the small crack in the bellows is a result of an accident, e.g. something puncturing or cutting the bellows, or is just a result of age/non-use? If it's a result of some accident and the bellows otherwise looks and feels fine then patching should do the trick. But if it's just a result of age I think it should be replaced. If one hole has developed because of age others are sure to follow. So unless you want to do the flashlight-in-a-dark-room test every time you take the camera out, you should replace the bellows. Otherwise you run the risk of losing who knows how many photographs to light leaks before you discover that new cracks/holes have developed.

[John Kasaian]

The quick and dirty repair for a crack you mentioned is a bit of gaffer's tape. These bad boys seem to run in packs, so take another look in a dark room with a light inside the bellows. FWIW those patch counpounds are usually advertised as being effective on pinholes. A grain of rice is quite a bit larger! You could try mixing up some stuff on your own like liquid rubber or acrylic, but gaffer's tape is easier & quicker IMHO plus if you screw it up, just remove and retape. The shutter/lens is a good one for speeders and crown graphics---the lens won't allow for much in the way of movements, but then you don't have much to move on a speeder anyway. Mine is an uncoated version and very sharp. As already mentioned the ronson trick isn't going to work on it, so I suggest sending it to Carol at Flutot's in Whittier for a cla---if those bellows are ok after the patch job! Carol's cla's are very reasonably priced, but add the cost of new bellows and you're spending some pretty serious $$ :(

[rivermandan]

Thanks for the many responses. On the state of the bellows, this one puncture wound is the only of its kind, which is half the reason I want to repair it. The other half of the reason is that replacing the bellows just wouldn't make sense on a camera in this rough shape. Bostick and sullivan kit is the route I am taking for that.

As for the shutter, it was lagging again 6 hours after posting my initial message. So I took it to work and gave cleaning it another run, and this time it seems to have done the trick as the blades are clean and dry.

David: I am almost positive the blade are not metal; they have some mild brassing.

[Glenn Thoreson]

You need to wash every bit of that oil out of the shutter. It's safe to use Naptha, as there are no synthetic materials in a SuperMatic. Ronsonol is the juice of choice, because it's easy to get and obtainable in small quantities. Unscrew and remove the front and rear lens cells. Flood the shutter with Ronsonol. Run the shutter repeatedly on 1 second setting while the shutter is good and wet inside. Work the aperture, to help get the oil from between the blades. Shake out the excess Ronsonol. Repeat a couple of times. After you shake it out as well as you can, sit in in the sun and allow it to dry for several hours. You should see a marked improvement. Testing the speeds for actual time is advisable. Even if you send it to Carol for service, getting marked speeds out of it will be a crapshoot. She will, however provide you with actual speed data. Good luck.