Saturday I thought I'd made real progress on my Pentacon six project because I managed to get the shutter working with a bit of lubrication to the film advance mechanism. However, I discovered that the 2nd curtain is not light tight, so I would need to do something to make it so. Today (Sunday) however, I've definitely taken a couple of steps backwards.
First I found that contrary to yesterday's belief that the shutter was all working, when set to 1/125sec the second curtain was again not moving and leaving the shutter open. I did a bit of research and found that this is probably due to the lubricant in the shutter being old and sticky. To get access to the rest of the shutter and since I am going to have to replace or repair the shutter curtain, I thought the best thing next would be to get the shutter out of the chassis and try to clean it up and add fresh lubrication.
At this point I did some googling and found a sequence of images showing how to do this. I basically followed that sequence, but to assist me in returning the shutter to the chassis I took my own photos, which are below.
Pentacon Six Shutter removal images
What I found as I did this is that it is obviously not the first time the shutter has been out of the chassis. Several of the screws has chewed up heads, and a couple of screws were missing. I guess that isn't surprising for a camera this old, but it does make me wonder if the eBay seller had tried to fix it and found it not worthwhile.
Anyway, I looked around the assembly and added a little watch oil to the cogs under the film advance and the speed selector, and then I made a big mistake. I cocked the shutter and fired it to work the oil into the mechanics. This was fine, so I did it again but this time the mirror didn't flip back when I fired the shutter. I looked at what would be preventing it from rising and couldn't see anything obvious, and then I realised that the curtains were out of sync. The second curtain was halfway across the shutter and the first was completely wrapped round its roller. Somehow the shutter sequence has managed to get itself in a mess and I can't figure out what it is.
So at the moment that is how I've left it. I'm hoping it is something relatively easy to put right, because it was so simple to put it wrong, but I can't figure out what it is at the moment.
On a slightly more positive note, some contacts in the Facebook Vintage Camera Collectors group have advised me that Dylon fabric paint, applied carefully and in layers, can be used to repair shutter cloth. Since I have the shutter out of the chassis, that will be my next repair action while I try to work out what to do to get the shutter sequence correct again.
Having the shutter out also means that the chassis is almost completely free of any important mechanics, so it gives me an opportunity to completely clean it, replace the light seals and possibly replace the leathers. All these things are much easier once the mechanics are out of the camera anyway, since they are messy jobs.
This post is part of a series: My Pentacon six project
