Well, spring break is almost over. Bummer. And for the first day of spring we were rewarded with about 8 inches of snow. Double bummer. But the snow is almost gone now (one day later). Tis the weather of Oklahoma.
Alesia and I had a pretty awesome spring break though, we went to stay with my grandparents in the land of no internet. We got to go to the Aquarium in Tulsa, and we went to Devil’s Den Park in Arkansas. We had a great time.
I think my biggest achievement over spring break was taking apart and putting back together Mr. Minolta in an attempt to fix his gunky shutter. He’s working for now. I managed to get to the front side of the shutter blades and clean them off, but I couldn’t get to the back side of them. I was stuck for a while because I couldn’t get the rear lens elements off the shutter mechanism, but as it was sitting there it loosened up some and I got the shutter going again. I wouldn’t bet a lot that it won’t gunk up again, but I’m pretty happy about it still. Alesia won’t let me put a roll of film in him yet though, she wants to make sure that he’ll keep working for a while.
I haven’t tried to work on my Nikon FE, the book I tried to get just recently came to the library, so I didn’t have it over spring break. But I know I’m going to have to solder to do what I want in the FE, so I’ll have to practice before I try it out on my camera.
I’m really not ready for spring break to be over, but I guess I should start studying again.
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21 March 2010 at 2:55 pm
dew1
Spring break is over and I didn’t get to see my Bud and his lovey. I’m bummed, too!
22 March 2010 at 7:44 am
Thad
Success with the Hi-Matic! Yes!
It’s true, the shutter blades may only be temporarily unstuck. I hope yours works more reliably than mine did.
Do you know what battery to use for it? The original Mercury batteries that it was designed to use are no longer sold. They were 1.35 volts, which is an odd voltage. You can’t use a 1.5 volt alkaline battery in there reliably. (The higher voltage will throw off the meter readings and exposures.) Hearing Aid “zinc air” batteries are 1.4v. They’re physically too small for the battery compartment. All you need is a small rubber O-ring (found at the hardware store) to put around it to make it fit.
Good luck, and put some film in that Hi-Matic!
22 March 2010 at 11:08 am
Wyatt
I forgot to mention I have two washers that I don’t know where they belong. They fell out before I could see where they go. I don’t know if I’m even going to bother with a battery for it, I can guess the exposures pretty well.
Thanks for all of your help Thad!