Re: [Leica] Winder M or Rapidwinder

[Chandos Michael Brown <cmbrow@mail.wm.edu>]

I can't forebear relating my experience with the Rapidwinder.  I ordered
one from Tom several weeks ago, just as he was preparing to depart for
Italy.  I'd seen it on Hans' page and needed one instantly.  I still regret
 trading a IIIc w/ Leicavit for a Nikon some 25 years ago.  He told me
exactly when it would ship, kept to his schedule, and it arrived in good
order.

I promptly slapped it onto my fairly recently acquired M4-P, which, on
first wind, locked up tight.  "Hmmmm," says I, "this can't be right."  I
fiddled and cursed, then sent an email off to Tom asking whether he had any
suggestions.

To my astonishment, I received that evening a phone call from a fellow with
a distinct Canadian accent.  "What seems to be the problem?" he asked, and
we proceded to chat for what I guess must have been close to 45
minutes--about my M4-P in particular, about Leicas in general: in all, a
wonderful conversation with a charming man.  He recommended that, if all
else failed, I should send the thing off to Rheinhold Mueller, in Toronto.
All else *did* fail.

A fax to Mueller eventuated in another conversation by phone, this time
with a fellow possessing a distinct German accent (I wonder sometimes what
the LUG group would *sound* like in a room together--a veritable Babble, I
should think). The upshot is that I sent the M4-P and a IIIf off to Mueller
for general TLC.

Last week Mueller called to tell me that the recent CLA of the M4-P,
commissioned by its previous owner, must have been performed by a complete
amateur--the thing was a mess, improperly reassembled, wrong lubes, a
thorough hack job.  The Rapidwinder, he explained, put, not an unusual, but
a *different* stress on the winding train, which, in turn, jammed.

Wiser, now, and moderately poorer, I await the return of the M4-P and a
completely refurbished IIIf.  So far, I must say,  both Tom and Rheinhold
have been stand-up fellows.  I don't at all believe that the Rapidwinder
'broke' the M4-P.  I'm sure a motor would have provoked the same failure or
that ordinary use would eventually have caused the same problem.  I am very
pleased, however, that the LUG group has provided a set of resources that
are otherwise completely inaccessible to me here in Williamsburg, VA.  The
Rapidwinder is a beautiful piece of engineering, and I don't need to
exercise much imagination to see how it will work with the M body.  Though
I haven't seen the work yet, I'm completely comfortable with Mueller's
diagnosis, and the price he's charging for the IIIf refurb (CLA, new
curtains) seems fair, given what I take is the present scale for such things.

In all, an unhappy experience rendered considerably less so by Tom's quick
concern and help and by Mueller's crisp, "They'll come back good as new."


Chandos Michael Brown