Some lens disassembly photos

[Groucho]

I am catching up on some old photos in Lightroom and thought some might be interested in this series of shots from early this year. My M42-mount Carl Zeiss 135mm F3.5 lens had sticky aperture blade - it wasn't keeping me from using the lens (since I usually had it wide open or close), but it was annoying. I found a tutorial online and proceeded to start tearing it down in order to clean the blades, and in the process, do some general cleaning, too.

The lens before surgery...

http://www.groucho.org/pics/47646-3/Zeiss135clean-01.jpg

First step is to remove the mount.

http://www.groucho.org/pics/47647-3/Zeiss135clean-02.jpg

...and pretty much keep taking parts off until you're down to almost nothing.

http://www.groucho.org/pics/47648-3/Zeiss135clean-03.jpg

Here you can see some of the helicals for the focusing. The grease was a little dried up, I cleaned it all out with a toothbrush and elbow grease and applied fresh grease, and it went from the focus ring feeling pretty good to wonderfully smooth.

http://www.groucho.org/pics/47649-3/Zeiss135clean-04.jpg

At this point, pretty much all the body of the lens is gone, the main assembly is the glass and the aperture.

http://www.groucho.org/pics/47650-3/Zeiss135clean-05.jpg

That's the rear element in the lower right here, with the aperture assembly facing the camera.

http://www.groucho.org/pics/47651-3/Zeiss135clean-06.jpg

The front element is off and we're almost down to the bare aperture assembly.

http://www.groucho.org/pics/47652-3/Zeiss135clean-07.jpg

After all that, here's what the whole mess looks like:

http://www.groucho.org/pics/47653-3/Zeiss135clean-08.jpg

Here are the blades themselves...

http://www.groucho.org/pics/47654-3/Zeiss135clean-09.jpg

...and here they are taking a bath.

http://www.groucho.org/pics/47655-3/Zeiss135clean-10.jpg

It took a few soaks and drying cycles before I was satisfied with the movement of the blades, but they came back to life nicely. Assembly was pretty much the reverse of disassembly, though getting infinity focus just right is a bit of a fiddle. The lens now works great, with terrific IQ, a really nice focus feel, and snappy aperture blades. All in all, it was kind of a fun little project and interesting to see just what is hiding inside these lenses we use.

Now, to see if I can pick up a few junk lenses and swap on an M42 or K mount and bring them back to life... :)

[spinetnglr]

Awesome pics Groucho. Its all very interesting to me as I love to take things apart as well. My dad was a machinist and could fix almost anything. I got all of my fixit genes from him and my brothers didn't make out so well. Entertainment for me as a young girl was taking apart my ten speed bike, cleaning all the parts and putting it back together again. I enjoyed your pictures alot because I never took any of my lenses apart and its interesting to see just how little or how much is inside some of these lenses.

[WVDisGeek]

Very interesting project. Cool to see the "guts" of one of these lenses. I have on old 135 myself that is a little sticky on the focus ring. Might be an interesting project this winter.

Thanks for sharing!

[boBQuincy]

After many years of taking things apart (and usually getting them back together in working order) I bought a small Bransonic ultrasonic cleaner. It is great for getting things *really* clean!

One thing I have always wondered, do some sections of the newspaper work better than others? ;)

[YesDear]

Great and interesting pictures Groucho. You did not however post a do not try this at home unless you really know what you are doing or you do not care if the lens comes back together!

[fa-ra]

thank you for your pictures