New (old) project - early Yashica-Mat TLR...

[Dean Williams]

Hi Scott;
I pretty much know what goes on in there, but haven't been into one for quite a while, so am a little fuzzy. 

Not sure, but these might help you to chase it down.




The two things in your latest pic move this lever with the red arrow.  Green arrow cocks shutter, fyi.






That lever from the first pic pushes this thing, and,






pushes this winding stop lever to reset it so you can wind to the next frame after pressing the shutter button.  Your camera may be slightly different from the pic above.  Some have a pin attached to the reset lever, some have a pin that comes up through the slot that pushes the reset lever, but they do the same thing.

The thing you have circled in red is a ring that runs free on the back of the shutter mount.  It fits over the shutter threads, and rides on a boss.  I don't suggest that you take the whole lens board off the focusing standards.  This thing takes really good photos.  You have to be very careful to get the shims under the lens board where it mounts to the focusing arms back exactly as they were if you take it apart.

There is a spring under there that helps return that ring that rides around the shutter.  If it came off, there might not be any way to get it back on but to take the front of the camera off.  It could just have some dirt in there too, making the thing stick.

Just thought of something else.  (Making this up as I go along..)
Does the shutter button come back up as soon as you take your finger off it?  If it's a little hard to press, or wants to come back up slowly, clean the things you see in your two circles and put a dab of grease where they contact each other.

If I think of more stuff, I'll put it here.

Dean

[Scott]

Thanks, Dean.  I'm feeling like we're getting this knocked now.

The shutter release comes back easily, but I'm going to clean and lube everything anyway.  I want this to be finished when I button it back up again.

I think what I'm going to do this morning is take the wind side cover back off, and see what it looks like when the wind arm is locked from in there.  I'm guessing that the linkages in your second and third pictures are dirty/slow/needing some TLC.  Going to see if I can do that without disassembling things further.

Next major issue - coverings.  Griptac is out, and much to my surprise, Maddie wants a black covering on this camera.  Only question now is material - can do the $14 leatherette, the nicer $26 leatherette (seal grain black fine), or splurge and get real leather for it (either the finer restoration leather, the classic Rollei black leather, or the smoother Levant black leather).  My only concern with upgrading to the leathers is that this thing needs to require no further opening - I'd be honked off if I put expensive skin on it, and had to peel it back off a couple months later...

Decisions, decisions.

[Scott]

Ok, here's what's going on:



The shutter release lever has two actuating tabs on it: The one circled in blue pushes the lever that releases the advance lock in the wind mechanism; the one circled in red actuates the shutter.  As is apparent in this photo, the two levers aren't working simultaneously - the one in red (which trips the shutter) is firing significantly before the one that releases the winding lock.  I need to get these two to actuate more in time with each other. 

My inclination is to gently realign the shutter actuating lever with a needle nose pliers.  I'm guessing this isn't the right course of action, though.

Suggestions?

Scott

[Mike Kovacs]

It might be.  I bet somebody forced it which bent things out of adjustment.

[Scott]

You're probably right, Mike.  However, after putzing with it a bit, and making a smidgen of progress, I can tell you that if something bent, it was further down the line than that lever.  It doesn't want to budge, and I don't want to break it.  As it sits now, the lock release just slightly lags behind the shutter.  Might just have to make sure I press the release all the way in use.  Unless Dean has a suggestion...

Loading it up with TMY for some test shooting this afternoon.  Stay tuned...

[Dean Williams]

Hi Scott;

You're not going to bend the one in the blue circle, I don't think.  It's fairly stout.  It's the same piece that the red arrow is pointing to in the first pic of my last post.  You can bend the one in the red circle a little.  It's softer material.  Be careful no to twist it.  It goes into the shutter for firing.  If you twist it, it will bind in the shutter and won't return to it's rest position.  Then, when you wind the shutter, it will fire instantly at the end of the wind cycle.




Red arrow in this pic is the same thing as your red circle.  The green arrow is the cocking ring, same as green arrow in first pic of my last post.
Adjust the thing in the red circle gently, just a bit at a time until  the shutter fires and the wind lock resets at about the same time.  Then check to make sure that the shutter will fire after you put the front back on the camera.  Sometimes you will get the shutter to fire and unlock the wind properly, but then find that the shutter button will not push down far enough to fire it.  It's fiddly.

The part that your thumb is on in your last pic may have to be bent (gently) up or down if the shutter will not fire using the button.

Dean

[Scott]

Well, Dean, here's where my thinking's at: I took it out a bit ago and shot some Pan-F.  Film's washing now.  Again, the negatives look awesome.  I don't want to booger this thing up.  It locked up a few times when I was shooting it; I calmly depressed the shutter release all the way, and everything was groovy again.  I think (since everything's subject to whim) that I'm calling this one golden.  The way things go, I'd snap that tab right off, and be into rebuilding things from the ground up.  Or, I'd get it set, and the focus'd be off, never to be sharp again.

Nope, this one's into full-on test mode now.  I'll make a decision on coverings here presently and get them ordered.  Until the new skin arrives, I'm going to shoot this thing a lot.  Make sure it's reliable.

I'm geeked.

[EDIT]  Ok, film's drying.  I'm still geeked, but there's one creeping last issue - the first frame of the roll is chopped in half.  I removed the counter screw and let that spring unwind when I first started in to working on the side last week; until then, spacing on the first frame was fine.  I think it can be fixed.  Ideas how?  The counter's working fine, but when the counter resets at the beginning of the roll, it's not on the "S", but about a third of the way forward on the arrow toward the number "1"...

[Dean Williams]

Hi Scott;

First, I didn't mean for you to take the shutter out to bent that tab in the red circle.  As long as you don't take the lens board off the focus mounts, you won't change the focus.  That tab often needs adjustment on the cameras I've had here because the shutter won't fire.  Use two needle nose pliers, one to hold the main part of the thing, and the other to bend the tab part.  Crank the focus out all the way and you can get at it easier.  Just bend a tiny bit at a time.  I've never had one break off.

If you would rather not mess with it, maybe if you just make sure you push the shutter button all the way in each time, it will go as it should.

The counter not returning to S may be the cause of the bad first frame.  Remembering that brass notched wheel beneath the counter disc, if it doesn't start in the right place, it may take a frame to get squared away.  Problem is, I can't remember how to reset the counter with the proper preload on the spring without having one here in front of me.  Work on it it a while.  I'm sure you'll find where it wants to be.

Dean

p.s.  You can post the link to the page I sent you about this stuff if you want.  It may help someone else if they want to get into one of these things.  (I can't remember where I put the link!)

DW

[Scott]

Well, part one is done.  Adjusting the little bent tab so that the advance lock releases the same time the shutter trips took all of two minutes.  Just a simple twist one way or t'other.  Had it releasing the lock a little ahead of the shutter, but twisted the tab back a tiny bit, and now they release absolutely simultaneously.

Now for the counter...

For future reference, Dean's awesome explanation on how to get started with all this can be seen on a webpage he set up for me.  Thanks again, Dean.

[Scott]

And there's part two.

Here's what things looked like before tweaking:


You'll notice the little circled spring attachment point is at about 11:30.  I took the counter disk off to examine, and the brass insert with the spring isn't directly attached to anything obvious on the back of the counter disk.  I didn't take a photo, but there's a toothed brass disk that sits beneath the counter disk.  It has detents for each number the counter displays, and (ultimately) sets the frame spacing by limiting the advance mechanism.  Anyway, there's a gap at the beginning to allow the leader to be advanced to the first frame.  I butted the start tab up against a built-in stop to put the "S" back in the window at the start of the roll.

Ok, that description is hard to follow.  I pulled it apart again to take a photo:


So, the spring mechanism has no obvious way to keep it from spinning.  Must be a friction fit with the screw.  I installed the screw, snugged it down a little, and took a pin and loaded the spring by turning the brass collar clockwise to about 9:00:


Without letting anything slip, I tightened down the screw completely.  Everything stayed put, and tested out perfect.  The counter now springs back to "S" when the back's opened.

Well, that about does it.  Camera's complete, and back in working order.  I had more fun working on this camera than probably any other camera I've played with yet.  Only thing left on this'n is a new coat.  Ordering that today.  As usual, I couldn't have done any of this without mentoring from Mr. Williams. 

Now I need to order s'more film...

Scott

[P C Headland]

Good perseverance, and a useful write-up to boot.

[Scott]

Rollei Black/Black Beauty leather coverings for the Yashica-Mat came (finally) in the mail today.  Had to light a fire under Morgan, but as usual, his products are completely first-rate, and worth the wait.

Time to get scraping on the old coverings.  Woot!

[Scott]

Whoa - what a PITA.



Cleaning the last little bits of glue off now, then start in to recovering!

[Mike Kovacs]

Nice - looks like the last time I stripped the roof off a house!

[Scott]

Well, crap.  I've been installing the new leather.  All's gone well.  Have the front, both sides, and the two top pieces in place.  Have the one long back piece to put in place.  Laid it up to make sure everything was golden, and it's not.  There are two screws for the pressure plate that show through the leather on this particular model.  They're 50mm apart on center.  The holes cut in the back piece are 54mm apart on center.  It ain't gonna fit.

I'm completely disappointed.  I've emailed Morgan about it - hopefully he'll reply.  I have a hole punch and a spare piece of leather, and could cobble something together, but I hate to cobble anything on this camera, and the leather kit wasn't cheap.

Crap.