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Stop telling new techs to buy a full set of JIS screwdrivers, a $12 file fixes 90% of stripped lens screws
I keep seeing guys in the local repair Facebook group tell beginners to drop $80 on a JIS set before they even touch their first lens, and it drives me nuts. Last Tuesday a kid brought me a Canon FD 50mm 1.4 with two chewed up mount screws because he used a Phillips head from his dad's toolbox, so I showed him how to dress the slots with a cheap triangular file and they came right out with his regular driver. Why are we pushing tool shopping on people instead of teaching them how to actually fit a driver to the screw head first?
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jasonf3510d ago
Wondering if this is really the big problem people make it out to be. Kid chewed up two screws on one lens, that happens to everybody when they start, JIS set or not. A file and some patience works fine for screws that are only slightly rounded, but once the head is really stripped or the screw is seized from corrosion, no amount of dressing the slot is going to save you and now you're drilling it out. Telling new techs to skip the right tools and just file everything is how you end up with a drawer full of mangled hardware and a camera body that needs a helicoid replaced. The real answer is learn to match the driver to the head first, that part is true, but a cheap file is not a substitute for the right tool when the screw is actually stuck. Most of the guys pushing JIS sets are just trying to save beginners from making the same dumb mistake twice.
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