co'ost

wish there was a doesthedogdie.com for metroidvanias that lists whether the game has permanently missable upgrades or completion items

a doesithavemissables.com , if you will

Today we're servicing a Wollensak Rapax Full Synchromatic shutter. This is part of my Speed Graphic service that started with making the bellows and will end with servicing the focal plane shutter on camera itself.

This shutter houses a 135mm Graflex Optar f/4.7 lens, and we're going to service it as its timings are all over the shop and it often doesn't finish a cycle without assistance. This'll go over my general workflow, and go into a bit of how shutters work.

First step when undertaking any new project is finding prior work, a visit to learncamerarepair.com and a browse of their many service manuals turns up just the ticket, some well numbered exploded diagrams, this will assist me in order of operations on taking the shutter apart.

First thing we need to do is seperate the shutter from the lens board and remove the lens elements. The lenses just screw in to the front and back and are only finger tight. With that we've got the shutter by itself

One of the specialist tools that's invaluable to any kind of camera service is a lens wrench, they come in 2 styles, 1 with points and 1 with flats and I specifically chose mine as they can have 0 gap between the business end. We'll use this to take off the retaining ring that's keeping the shutter sandwiched together.

Removing this retaining ring means we can lift off the face place and take a look at the cam plate. The cam plate is what sets our various settings, in each of the cutouts here we can see various followers that will change the behaviour of the shutter as the plate is rotated, namely the shutter speed but you can also select T (press once to open the shutter and once to close) and B (the shutter will stay open as long as you hold the release) modes as well. I take note of the various followers and lift the plate of to reveal the mechanism.

Looking at the mechanism here we see the source of our problem, it's dirty af. Shutters, and cameras in general, stop working as the grease and oils in them break down and seperate into the sticky components that they're made of. Even worse is that these are generally volatile and will flash off and migrate to places where they shouldn't be.

Disassembly begins, and this consists of a lot of me reading the exploded diagram, taking components off in the order shown and taking a bunch of photos of me pointing at springs and mechanisms I think are important to notice how they sit. Each spring will sit on 2 places and plays an important role in the successful operation of the shutter. Invariably the thing I'm pointing at I'll remember but it's the things I don't think are important at the time that I'll be scouring photos for. Always Be Taking Photos.

Some subassemblies are well compartmentalised while some are not, in this photo I've removed the shutter sync selector assembly. Old timey flash bulbs took a while to get to full brightness so needed to be triggered just before the shutter was fully open while electronic flash comes to full brightness immediately, the bit I've removed controls that timing.

As we continue we come across another thing I like to do, take a photo of the spring that came off a particular post. Sometimes these things can look very similar so it's nice to know exactly where it goes. I will likely never use this photo.

We're her at the crux of the problem now, the slow speed gear. This isn't moving well needs to be taken apart and cleaned. Usually I never take apart a slow speed gear and opt to clean in place as in other shutters they're whole sub assemblies, this is to keep any adjustment the factory would have done. Depending on how they're put back and adjusted they will change their speeds. Unfortunately with the Wollensak I have no choice but to take it apart to base components.

Pressing on we get to the three gears that make up the slow speed mechanism

Pressing on I make an unfortunate discovery. I am not the first person who has been in this shutter. The last idiot in here decided that the best thing to do when your screwdriver isn't the correct size is to press on and completely chew up the screw head, then put it back together to hide your crimes. I now can't trust any position of anything in here as they would have been unable to complete a good service. This poses the first real problem to me.

Thankfully I own a Dremel, I cut a new slot into the screw head and undo it with great ease. The screw wasn't even jammed in there, they just didn't bother to use a correctly sized screwdriver on a soft brass screw.

After removing that screw there are 6 more that hold the mechanism plate onto the shutter/aperture plate. Removing those means I can reveal the shutter blades and as far as I'll need to go for the service. The aperture blades are clean, dry and move freely so I have no need to torture myself with getting them apart and cleaned. I take note of the positions of the shutter blades and remove them in order (the one with the brass washer is on top).

Here's all the parts that came off, going from first to last left to right and up. Next up we have to clean everything in lighter fluid to remove all the old grease and grime and reassemble with fresh grease (that will go bad in another 50 years)

Getting the shutter blades back on and the mechanism plate in place is fairly easy, and allows me to demonstrate how the shutter is controlled through the plate.

Now let's talk lubrication. Unlike anal it's very easy have too much, and you need to use the right lube for the right job. First up we have moly, this I use for any flat surface running on another flat surface, like the pawls you see installed in the shutter. The correct amount to use is so little that you're not sure if you applied any.

Next we have graphite powered, this I use for the meshing teeth of gear trains. You spray some in there, run the mechanism a few times then use a blower to blow out any excess.

Finally we have a synthetic lubricant usually used in watchmaking. This gets used for gear plates, where the gear shaft runs, and is great as it doesn't migrate to places where it shouldn't be. This bottle will be enough to last my lifetime.

As we continue we can start testing parts of the shutter to make sure everything is going back together well. The slow speed gear now completes its full travel freely and easily, so that's a success!

Next up we can see the bistable switch that controls opening the shutter mechanism for focusing. There's the lever I'm manipulating with my hand but there's also the spring at the bottom of the shutter that's helping the snappiness out and keeping it solidly closed/open.

With even more components in place we can now test firing the shutter, and it's looking good!

The last major thing that needs to get put back is the flash sync switch, this gets the same treatment as the entire shutter did and slapped back in place.

Everything is back in its place and clean now! (There's a mistake in this photo, can you find it?)

A quick go on my home made shutter speed tester shows that I don't need to worry about going back in and adjusting my timings which is a great relief.

Finally the lens elements get screwed back in and the entire assembly goes back on the lens board and back on the camera, next the focal plane shutter service and installing the bellows!