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Pro tip: I stopped fighting with tiny screws on old rangefinders
For the longest time, I insisted on using my standard JIS screwdriver set for every repair, even on those tiny, delicate screws in 1960s rangefinder assemblies. I'd spend 20 minutes just trying to get the right grip, often rounding the heads a bit. Last month, a guy at a repair meetup in Portland showed me his set of magnetic tipped drivers from Wiha. He said, "You're making it hard on yourself for no reason." I bought the 1.4mm size, and the next time I worked on a Canonet, the screw came out on the first try. The magnet holds the screw so you don't drop it into the body. It seems so obvious now. What other simple tool swaps have saved you guys a ton of frustration?
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theagibson5mo ago
Magnetic drivers are a good tip, but sometimes the problem is just technique. You can get by fine with regular drivers if you push down hard and turn slow. Parker183's friend with the motorcycle might have had the same issue, forcing the wrong tool instead of learning the right touch. For those tiny screws, a tiny drop of penetrating oil the night before does more than a new driver. Why buy a special tool for one job when patience and the right prep work just as well?
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parker1835mo ago
Oh man, that reminds me of my buddy trying to fix his old motorcycle. He was always using a regular adjustable wrench on the carburetor linkages, stripping the soft brass nuts. He fought with it for weeks. I finally told him to just get a set of proper t-handle hex wrenches for the job. He said it was like night and day, everything just fit right and came loose easy. Sometimes the right basic tool makes all the difference.
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