| Need
for Replacement of Shutter Curtains |
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Spring
Drum for determining shutter speeds.
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This
part is what we call spring drum of Leica M type camera.
It is an important part for giving tension to the
shutter curtains, and determining shutter speeds.
Shutter curtains are set up on this part. When you
release the shutter, spring inside of this part pulls
the curtains and shutter curtins start to move. Most
cameras have two spring drums for the first curtain
and the second curtaion. |
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This is that the spring drum
has been taken apart. You can see the inner spring,
whose grease has been deteriorated. The spring drum
become like this after 10 years or more since production
or overhaul (OH), there is an individual difference
though. Once the spring drum has been like this,
it could not keep the shutter speed accurate. Only
adjusting shutter speed is nothing
more than makeshift repair, the shutter speed will
go wrong again soon.
In this case, cleaning and lubrication are necessary.
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is after cleaning and lubrication. In this condition,
we set the spring drum into the camera, and we adjust
the shutter speed. Of course, the shutter speed can
be accurate by not only cleaning and lubrication of
the spring drum, but also overhaul of the whole camera.
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| Conclusion |
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Without
lubrication of the spring drum,
you cannot keep
the shutter speed accurate
even if you adjust it. If the spring drum is
in need of lubrication like above, the shutter
curtains are damaged themselves. (The shutter
curtains should be damaged even if there are
no defects clearly visible, for example the
curtains have a hole or they are ragged).
The shutter curtains are made by gluing cloth
and rubber together, and the rubber gets constricted
and becomes hardened with time. Due to the shutter
curtains are glued, you should not reuse shutter
curtains removed once as much as possible. To
conclude, when you do overhaul of old cameras
and cameras which overhaul has not been done
for a long time (inclusing replacement of shutter
curtains and lubrication), you cannot say that
you did overhaul without above work.
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