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Adjustment Jigs for Bolex Cameras


Jeremy Cavanagh

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Hi,

 

I'm not sure if anyone can help me. I would like to find and obtain adjustment jigs for Bolex H8/H16 cameras. I have three H8 Rex bodies and using a maintenance manual I have been gradually teaching myself how to pull one of them apart. As an engineer I have so far been able to figure out alternatives to a few of the more straightforward jigs and adjustments (e.g. variable shutter adjustment) but to go much further I need the specialised jigs originally used or detailed specs on what the jigs are adjusting for.

 

Is there any source for such things? I'd be grateful if someone can point me in the right direction. This is mainly for my own interest.

 

(BTW. I maintained broadcast cameras for over ten years e.g. replacing optics blocks etc, so am used to interactively intricate systems built in small spaces).

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You can still buy a lot of the jigs and tools from Bolex themselves (www.bolex.ch). I recently bought a H8 gate alignment jig from them, but certainly not all the jigs are necessary.

Edited by Dom Jaeger
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Thanks Dom, John and and Robert.

 

Dom, I didn't think of Bolex as I assumed they wouldn't sell jigs (yes daft of me) so thanks for that as the gate alignment jig is one of the two I have perhaps identified as not being able to make substitutes (I'm assuming you mean the jig for checking the alignment of the claws).

 

John & Robert, I have had email contact with Roger Sharman and he very generously gave me some tips as well as allowing me to ask dumb questions. I think he painstakingly put together his jigs over years including making some but and I remember him telling me there is one jig you must use or make to specs otherwise you can break a central part of the mechanism. He very generously offered to sell me a 16M body to practise on but I have gone down the route of a turret Rex camera which I have triumphantly extracted the mechanism intact.

 

Appreciated

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  • 4 months later...
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Roger Sharland was a gentleman amoung gentle man. I have spent the past 6 six years corresponding with him, purchasing various parts, pieces, tools, and books from him. His passing will be severly marked in the world of Bolex users and filmmakers of all kinds. He touched many filmmakers lives of all kinds, and was a man never afraid to lend a hand,and generous with his knowledge. He will be missed forever.

 

Roger, where ever you are, may you find peace and joy, for always and eternity, farewell my friend and mentor, you were ever kind and generous, thank you and you will be sorely missed.

 

Sincerely, Respectfully,

Robert M. Ditto

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  • 7 months later...
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I have met Roger Sharland once in London for a talk about IMAX.

 

 

Coming back to the subject—jigs or gauges are not an absolute necessity to have. From the service manual one is guided to center the gate (aperture plate) by a gauge but also to keep the wedge (sheet between gate and front body/lens holder) flush with the front’s edge right there. This can evoke tension between the gate and the surrounding lateral-guidance frame, something inacceptable for me. The actual wording is: “The outer edges of wedge (d) must come flush with the bearing surface of the film gate.” The wedge is simply pinched between lens holder and gate without respect to the tapped holes for the screws holding the frame. Its bores are .098" or 2,49 mm. The screws are ridiculous M2.

 

My procedure is to first adjust the flange focal distance (which isn’t so easy with some parts) and then screw down the assembly while maintaining the wedge edge flush with the lens holder border. From the front I center the aperture vertically by eye. That way the frame makes best contact with the gate.

 

After all, it’s an amateur, say: consumer camera. The C mount will never center a lens as exactly as a professional mount does, so some efforts are always in vain.

 

 

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