Suggestions for Ilex shutter repair?

[Don Dudenbostel]

I recently purchased a very clean Ilex Photoplastic 10-1/2" extreme soft portrait lens. It's in a black rimset Ilex shutter. Cosmetics are good and the glass is near perfect. Unfortunately the shutter is not very accurate and the time and bulb do not work. It appears to be consistent in speeds and I can trick the lens with a cable release to open slowly so I can lock the cable release to focus. The shutter appears to be a #5 but after trying to swap the cells into my modern #5 I find the cells are about 1mm larger and will not fit. I guess I will send it to someone like S K Grimes but wanted information on a couple of alternate repair services.

Thanks!

PS I've done a little work on Ilex shutters in years past and went into the lens last night. There's about a hundred years of caked and dried lube that needs removed but the internal workings look to be in very good shape.

[Vick Vickery]

I've had great luck with Carol at Flutot's on the several jobs she has done for me. Very reasonable prices. WWW.flutotscamerarepair.com

[Glenn Thoreson]

Those are a simple shutter and cleaning it may get it to work about as well as it can. The biggest problem I've run into with these is a weak main spring which will not allow it to achieve speeds higher than about 1/25. Using 1/50 is not usually something most folks would do with large format anyway. The speed cam is probably worn, too, which means the speeds may not be as marked. This can be peened and/or burnished to get them right, or very close to it. It's a time consuming process, though, with no guaranty of success. Consistency is the prime objective. If the speeds are consistent, you can work around the rest in numerous ways.

[lenser]

Ditto for Carol. She did a brilliant job on my Ilex #3 for dirt cheap compared to most. Includes a chart of actual speeds compared to marked speeds in case you need perfect exposure accuaracy on available light.

[Don Dudenbostel]

Thanks for the info. It's been yeas since needing a shutter cleaned and at that time we had a couple of repair techs locally that did a good quick job but unfortunately both are no longer ding repairs (digital killed the business). Looks like I will send this one to Carol. First i want to do a few shots to see what the images look like than I'll part with it for a few weeks. I haven't exposed any film with it yet but probably will this weekend. Information is a little hard to find on this lens. I don't know if many were made or whether they weren't very popular but info is scarce. Anyone ever used the Ilex Photoplastic extreme soft lens. My guess is it's a 20's vintage lens or possibly pre dates the 20's by a little.

[lenser]

Don. If you go to wwwCameraeccentric.com and click on the info section, you will find the covers of dozens of catalogs including Ilex. Click on any cover and the interior pages will open. I believe there is at least one on Ilex lenses and shutters.

[Jan Pedersen]

Does Carol take in new work? I emailed her two weeks ago and never did get a reply which is very unusual.
Frank Marshman, Camera Wiz seems to get good reviews and has a pretty quick turnaround. Maybe worth a try.

jan

[Glenn Thoreson]

I have never heard if Carol was able to rturn to work. The last I heard was no.

[Vick Vickery]

She posted a while back that she was back at work and I got the lens back that she had while she was off; unless something else happened, she's back.

[lenser]

I emailed back and forth with her about three weeks ago about a needed repair. The message I got was to send it in and she would be happy to work on it. I hope nothing has changed since I put complete faith in her work.