Advice needed - Cleaning smudged groundglass

[Tsarkon]

Hi all! Here's my latest conundrum. I'm restoring a Horseman 980 and would like to get any advice on what this smudge on the groundglass could be and if it's an easy fix or something I should take to the shop. As it is now the groundglass works alright although there is some perceived blurriness I believe due to this smudge. I think there are some sandwiches layers going on here and I've never taken a groundglass assembly like this apart. I'm crossing fingers and toes that this isn't something like mold or any permanent damage. Has anyone seen anything like this before? See photo:



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[Paul Ron]

take it out n wash it with dish soap and hot water.

take note of how its all orientated if its a sandwich or has a Fresnel.



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[Tin Can]

I have cleaned many GG, which is often the first thing I do with any camera

both sides

Horseman may have shims, so take it slow and keep every tiny bit in order

Not difficult

[Keith Pitman]

I don’t know about Horseman, but washing a ground glass will remove the lines on some ground glass screens. Take it slow and test on a corner.

[John Layton]

looks like moisture between a (plastic) fresnel and cover glass.

Do note proper orientation as you disassemble!

Glass you can clean with warm water and dish soap. Rinse warm...dry with hair dryer or air-dry.

Plastic fresnel...luke warm at most - and be careful cleaning this! Gentle, circular motion (to follow fresnel grooves) with a warm(ish) slightly soapy water moistened cotton swab - then rinse, and leave out to dry, or blow off with cool (to slightly warm) air...but not hot!

[Doremus Scudder]

+1 for John's post. Plastic Fresnel screens are very easy to scratch (don't ask me how I know )

Doremus

[Tsarkon]

Awesome! Thanks for all the words of wisdom everyone. This is exactly what I needed to get courage enough to take a stab at cleaning it. I'll post an update after I'm done.

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[Tsarkon]

Back with the update! The glass is clean! I hardly touched the fresnel but it seems the glass was what needed the attention anyway. I did accidentally knock away some paint that was the frame guide but it doesn't seem very necessary. I actually might purposefully remove the rest at some point. There's still an indication of where the paint was and i kind of like how it looks without the black paint there. I suppose it was dry and given how fine the lines are it popped off with the lightest touch. I used qtips so luckily we t happened to one and then I was able to stop before wiping them all off. I'm happy now that the glass is clean and focus should be much easier to achieve.

Next part of this project is replacing the bellows! Wish me luck!

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[John Layton]

Great job! Its amazing how a truly clean ground glass can be so inspiring!