See The Light

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I've spent some time today trying to effect a small repair on the pictured; my Weston Master V exposure meter. I'd noticed that the needle was sticking at the far end of its travel, and I worked out that the little panel of aluminium that carries the scale it references was tilted up on one side, fouling the needle. Simple, thought I, so I Googled for the modus operandi - which I'd already worked out, but I wanted to be sure - for opening the thing up, and did just that. I fixed the issue that was causing the sticking needle, no problem, but then discovered that I'd managed to lose a tiny, weeny pin which creates a ratchet for setting and holding the film-speed setting. After very much searching - this thing is really tiny after all, I gave up and started in on the process of trying to engineer a solution of my own.

I had to find a piece of stock approx 1mm diameter, and cut it down to about 3mm in length. Given the tools at my disposal, and not possessing a watchmaker's lathe,  this seemed on the face of it to be an impossible task. However, after much head-scratching and furtling, I produced the little bastard by hand, with two pairs of glasses on so I see what I was at. The initial test of its function was fine, and I managed to epoxy it to the spring that locates it, so it wouldn't shift again in the future. However, on reassembly, the spring is now just failing to re-engage the pin quite fully in the tiny indent in the dial, so I've got to find a way of adding just the right amount of tension to it, which is going to be very trial and error: I suspect mostly error. Anyhow, it's all grist to the mill. I'll keep you posted...

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