Betax No 2 Shutter- grease where?

[domaz]

I recently picked up a 7 1/4" Series I Velostigmat Triple Convertible Wolly in Betax shutter. Of course like all Betax shutters I find it doesn't work all that well. I opened it up and suprisingly there is no grime in any of the moving parts at all, everything looks clean. Problem is the gear mechanism is not moving very well. It seems to stick about half the time after it fires. It does not reset it's position (self-cocking?) like it is supposed to.

The screws were a bit loose so am I suspecting someone opened this up at some point and did something to remove any hint of grease. So my hope is that if I re-greased the moving parts where they needed to be greased I wouldn't have to mess with re-tensioning or replacing springs. So does anyone know where grease should be on this shutter?

[Shen45]

Don't use grease. Get a pin and dip it in light machine or watch oil and very sparingly apply just the smallest amount to the obvious contact points. Don't splash any oil around the interior as you don't want any on the shutter or aperture blades.

Check the shutter blades are clean as the smallest contamination can cause them to bind.

Thankfully a Betax or for that matter an Alphax is a very straightforward shutter.

If you are tempted to go all the way and strip the shutter down make certain you do the following. Get a large white bowl and work inside that and when removing springs work inside a large plastic bag. The logic of what I'm say will become apparent when the first spring "goes west"

Also if you have a digital camera snap each step and then re-assemble the shutter in reverse order.

Steve

[domaz]

Thanks that helps. I took some springs out and re-mounted them and that seems to have fixed the issue. I think I will see what happens before I try greasing anything.