As ever the posts before cover the subject quite good. I just want to add a thing or two about self cut foam.
First I want to stress the things you really need:
Originally posted by stevebrot Here is what you will likely need, regardless of how you get your cut foam:
- Steady hands
- Good eyesight or a suitable magnifier for fine work
You should also have a good portion of patience.
Here in europe precut sets are about the same size what you get if you cut it by yourself, only a bit straighter. In other words a set of square pieces of foam.
Thus I cut all my seals myself. High precision in cutting is not needed, and you always have a second go until you glue the foam into the camera.
I ordered self and non sticking neopren patches in 1 mm, 2 mm and 3 mm thickness from a shop selling insulations. The patches are 20 to 30 cm in square and dirt cheap, about EUR 2,- per piece.
For cutting I use a scalpel with changable blades and a ruler with a metal edge on a good wooden cutting board from the kitchen.
When you are cutting by yourself, you need to examine the existing seals before you clean the camera. I advice you to do some photos to remember where the seals have been. I have two clean bodies without any traces of seals, wondering if they had some at all or I just can not remember me cleaning them
. I try to measure the thickness of the seals with a calliper and a transparent ruler. Not so easy, when the seals are completely detoriated.
The sticking patches I use for the camera back and the mirror damper, where I can remove the new seals easyly when something goes wrong.
For the groves on the back of the camera I use the non-sticking patches or a thick thread of wool. The last one is very easy to apply, you just have to get the right thickness. Like in the video above I just stuff the foam or the wool into the groves, so they can be pulled out if something goes wrong.
For old cameras some people use self sticking velvet for the body at the door hinges, as they used to do in production. I couldn't get my hands on this until now.
Patience and quite will help you, do not rush. The cleaing is usually the time consuming part. Cheaper and older bodies are quite easy to reseal. The worst thing are bodies with seals around the mirror or focusing screen. My Mamyia 645 was quite a piece of work and getting the foam around the screen out my MX still gives me the creeps.
A last word to working near the focusing screen: DO NOT USE ANY SOLVENTS (as lighter fluid) NEAR THE SCREEN, i.e. avoid them in the mirror box.
Honestly I prefer bodies with working seals.
Last edited by Papa_Joe; 04-17-2019 at 01:04 AM.