Build your own wrenches to repair cameras

Jesito · Expire: 2015-01-07

To be honest, I do prefer to repair cameras than lenses. Lenses are great to fix, but cameras use to be a puzzle with many difficulties, more complex and sometimes not solvable.

Cameras use to need special wrenches to disassemble specific parts.
And with the time, I've reached to the conclusion that the best is making them by oneself as they are needed.

For instance, this time I'm trying to fix the speed dial of a broken Praktica FX3 (that Attila was so kind of sending me, thanks Attila).

The Praktica has the speed dial on top. The first thing to do is to remove the index disk with a standard flat screwdriver.

Then the speed dial is visible, and the cut in the middle where a specific wrench has to be put to unscrew it:

As you can see, the middle part there is a circular hole with two sides (grooves?, don't know the english word for it!):
So we need a special wrench to unscrew it.

We depart from a standard cheap screwdriver wide enough. I use to buy them at a flea market, once I got 10 for 5�. They have to be cheap: the metal is softer and easier to work with it. And we don't plan to do a big force with it, we're talking of delicate cameras...

And then we proceed to work, first filing the central round shape, and then adjusting the sides to fit into the dial. Finally trimming the edge to fit inside.

That's all!

Although this is really basic, someone can find it useful, specially now that standard tools are more difficult/expensive to obtain.

Regards.

Jes.