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[OM] Spanner Wrench

Subject: [OM] Spanner Wrench
From: "Olaf Greve" <ogreve@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 10 May 2000 01:59:00 PDT
Cc: kyu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, j.korten@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Volkhart (and Jaap, and people on the Oly list),

Yo y'all,this is a question mainly to the European list members, I suppose. The problem is - I have a few lenses here that I got dirt cheap because they are rather dusty/may have traces of fungus inside. I figure they would be decent lenses and could be put to good use if they were clean, but I feel I can't justify the cost of having them cleant (no Zuikos). So I thought I might take a shot at cleaning them myself - if I succeed I'll have some pretty useful lenses, if I ruin them trying, not much damage will be done.

Before you attempt to do this, I would like to suggest you scan the Olympus archives of somewhere around April - June 1999 for a thread about cleaning a 300/4.5. If my name pops up in it, you'll soon know why I recommended you to read that thread. :( In other words, it's very _easy_ to damage the glass of the elements, and it's very _difficult_ to keep dust out of the lens.

It really is up to you what you do with this information, but it's at least a word of advice: cleaning lenses is a job for specialised people with special equipment, so don't look too surprised if your end result is worse than when you started off (just like with my 300/4.5 :((( ).

On a further note, the set of elements inside a lens can do a surprisingly nice job of deceiving your idea of _where_ the fungus is actually located. I started out working on my 300/4.5 being _absolutely sure_ that the fungus was located on top of the 2nd element from the front. It was not. It wasn't even located on the bottom of it, so I went one level lower. Zilch. It's not on the top of the 3rd element either! I hit rock bottom there, as the front part of the whole lens needs to be unscrewed for further disassembly and apparently (during a previous cleaning attempt?) it has been glued. End of story, I never reached the fungus so it's still there.

To make matters worse, more dust got introduced in the lens then there was when I took it apart (note: I was working in the bathroom and used a cannister of air to blow dust out, but still dust got in!), and finally, upon reassembling I had to experience in great horror just how easy it is to chip a piece of glass off of one of the elements...:(((

I have learnt my lesson in doing home repairs. When it comes down to curing some simple play in lenses (like was the case with my 35-70/4) I will attempt it myself (it turned out to be really easy to do that), just like things like sticky diaphragms (if it doesn't involve a very expensive lens and/or removing glass). Similarly I just repaired (oiled) my bellows myself, went fine. But when it comes down to removing the glass, I will leave it in the hands of the experts.

Having said that, let's see if there is a concrete answer to your question:

However, in order to open them, I need a (set of?) spanner wrench(es). While I do know what it looks like and where I could get it in the U.S. , given the current Dollar rate I think it might be a better idea to buy it somewhere in Europe, preferably in Germany. The problem is, neither do I know where to look for it, nor what a spanner wrench is called in German or any other language other than English. Could any list member point me towards a source in Europe and tell me the name of what I'd have to order?

O.k., this is why I CC'ed Jaap Korten on the message, as he's located in Europe and repairs lenses himself (and also has access to a professional repair location). I advise you to contact him (j.korten@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) about your question to see if he can help you in finding a spanner wrench (I don't have a clue either as to what this may be called in German, but maybe he does), or if so desired, in getting a quote for having your lenses cleaned by him or his repair shop.

Any advice will be much appreciated.

Good, I hope this is of any use to you, and at least heed the advice regarding just how easy it is to damage these lenses. If they were really dirt cheap as you say, you may not mind damaging one or two, but I would definitely recommend you start out with the least interesting one of the bunch in case you're going to do this yourself...

Cheers!
Olafo

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