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[FixerFiend]

I have the spring back off my Pacemaker 2x3 and need to lube the curtain rollers.Can someone inform me to the proper procedure as the manual is pretty vauge on this point. Do I need to fully remome the shutter plate assembly and remove the rollers & curtain to lube.Thanks

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BTM

[glennfromwy]

Everyone has a different opinion on this one. Some advise grease, others prefer oil. The grease users probably don't live in a climate as cold as I do. This is how I do it-- --- If you just want to lube the roller shafts, remove the back and you can just barely see them. It's a small space between the rollers and the body, so, with a needle oiler or a toothpick, apply a small drop of fine oil on the shaft on each end of each roller. Don't overdo it! More is not better. Excersize the shutter well and if it works better, replace the back and go shoot some pictures.
I find that this usually does a world of good but if it doesn't help it will need more drastic proceedures, which I will leave to others.

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Glenn

"Wyoming - Where everybody is somebody else's weirdo"

[djv]

I oiled the rollers on my 2x3 today, and saw an almost instant and vast improvement in the accuracy. Before the oiling, it was shooting 1 to 1.5 stops too slow, aterwards it was spot on. My testing method to make sure it was working was to take a digital SLR from where I work and put it nose to nose with my 23, with the groundglass and lensboard removed. I set the focal plane shutter to the open position, and metered a shot on the SLR in shutter priority mode at 1/1000th of a second. I noted the f-stop the camera selected, then dropped to manual on the SLR and dialed in that f-stop and a 2 second exposure. I got the speed and the SLR snuggled up real close to prevent light leaks, set the speed for 1/1000th of a sec on the focal plane shutter and fired off the slr and the speed in quick sequence. Before oiling the rollers the shot using the speed's shutter was badly blown out. After oiling it, the picture was totaly indescernable from the electronic shutter in the SLR. It was so close in fact, that I had to keep checking the file number in the corner of the digital camera's screen to make sure of which shot I was looking at! I might go back and test all of the speeds later, but I'm certain it's Really Close if not perfect now.

Thanks, Glenn!

[ This Message was edited by: djv on 2004-04-24 19:21 ]