The moment I picked aluminum over brass for a shutter adjustment

I was fixing a Seagull TLR last week and had to choose between a brass or aluminum tool for setting the shutter speeds... went with aluminum because it felt easier on the delicate gears. Ended up stripping a tiny screw head though, so maybe brass was the right call. How do you decide which metal to use on these old cameras?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_riley2mo agoProlific Poster

Wait is aluminum really that much softer than brass on old gears? My buddy tried fixing his dad's old Minolta and went with brass because he read somewhere it matched the original tolerances better. He spent an hour filing the brass tip down to fit a tiny screw slot and ended up cracking the shutter plate frame instead. The aluminum tool he borrowed from me later actually worked fine on a different adjustment, but he still swears by brass for anything that needs torque. The thing is, these old cameras weren't built to super tight specs, so either metal can bite you if you go too hard. I think you just got unlucky with that screw head, not the metal choice.

park.robin2mo ago

Yeah, @the_riley, old brass can still roughen up screw slots way worse than a soft aluminum tool would.

taylor_hayes251mo ago

Wait, are you saying aluminum is soft enough to not mess up brass parts? Because I've seen the opposite happen plenty of times. Aluminum tools can still leave gouges in old brass if you're not careful. The real issue is fit and technique, not the metal itself. Your buddy's problem was probably the filing job, not the brass vs aluminum thing. I've used both on old cameras and brass works fine if you match the tip to the screw right. Aluminum is softer but it can still deform and slip. Bottom line is neither metal is perfect. You just gotta go slow and know when to back off.