Damaged Pentacon

[NewStuff]

Hi.

For the "Cheap lens challenge", I managed to get hold of a Pentacon 135/2.8 for a fiver. Bargain. All I had to worry about was a bit of fungus.

Sadly, That's not the case. It appears this lens has had a hard life. It's bee taken apart by someone who would appear to have the mechanical aptitude of a drunken snail. Although I have no experience taking a lens apart, I managed to do so in an effore to rectify some of the more glaring problems (aperture doing all manner of weird things, ruddy great fingerprint inside the lens assembly itself). Sadly, putting it back together, I discovered that part of the outer barrel is damaged (Looks like it's had an impact), and the retaining ring, that holds the rear lenses and aperture assembly in, will not screw into the thread.

Is there anything I can do, or try, as I would really like this back together.

All comments and advice appreciated,

NewStuff.

[ZoneV]

Only the retaining ring screwing not in is the problem?
Is the thread damaged - that could probably be repared with a the head of a small file.
Is the tube bend - that could probably repaired or temporary fixed for the assembly with a vise.

And if nothing works, I would use a kind of glue to fix the lens and iris inside. Not the best way, but probably good enough for a cheap lens.

[David]

Can you post a couple pics of the ring and the threads?

Also, for glue, be sure to carefully select a glue that doesn't off-gas. For instance, super glue off-gasses glue vapor which will land on your glass and never come off. Be sure to use a proper cement if you go the glue route.

[NewStuff]

I'll be stripping it down later for pictures... it really is a state, so I'm not overly bothered if it's not salvageable, but I would like to save it if I can. The aperture leaves were a huge learning curve, requiring more patience than I knew I had. I *think* it's just the retaining ring not screwing down causing problems, but I may well be wrong, not having done this before.