[Leica] BASKETCASES :) (long)

[TTAbrahams@aol.com]

I am back after a nice trip down the westcoast roads. Met with LUGers on the
road; Gary Todoroff in Eureka and Jeff Alford at Keeble& Suchat in Palo Alto.
I did spend some time taking pictures (not enough, of course) and our old
clunker of car rumbled along the highways and byways of Washington, Oregon and
California. A good vacation, a pleasant trip, good wine and good food, some
Leica talk, some exposed film. What else can one wish for!
Having spent some time going through the LUG digest I found a thread regarding
the lack of “baskets” or “ Wagonwheels” (some Western influence here) or, as
the correct term is in German “Filmroller”. In the early days of making
Rapidwinders (1987-1990) I used to be able to get these from Leica USA at a
decent price, roughly $3.50 each in quantities of 250. Then I was informed
that I had to pay “retail parts price “ and the price jumped to almost $18
each! It is one thing to spend $1000 for parts every 10-12 month and
altogether another thing to spend close to $5000 for the same parts.
Particularly as the price was in US$ and US$5000 is close to Can$ 7000. I
estimated that by the time I had paid for the filmrollers, paid the duty,
shipping and carrying cost of the part it would add close to $40/winder to the
price. This was more than the part is worth. particularly as the part is
freely available from the regular baseplate and can be easily transferred if
the user wants it. 
I have been using my own Rapidwinders with and without the plastic Roller and
never had a problem. The trick is to ensure that the film is properly located
on the sprockets of the drive and of course the small folded end of the film
is stuck inside the “tulip” of the take up spool. I always found the plastic
Roller a bother. It never slipped in over the “tulip” as you wanted, most of
the time the spokes of it got stuck, or hit the tips of the “tulip” take up
spool and required that you fiddled with it. Without the Roller, you just have
to ensure that the film is located in the right position, on the sprockets, in
the take up spool and push the Rapidwinder on and go shooting. I went and
looked through my last 3 months of film shot and in approximately 250 rolls, I
could see no difference between film Roller equipped Rapidwinders and non-
Roller equipped Rapidwinders.
Of course I would like to supply the Rapidwinder with the plastic Roller, but
it would increase the cost of them by almost 10% and I have always been trying
to keep the price of the Rapidwinder reasonable and I abhor having to increase
the price/cost of it. It is a quick operation to remove the plastic Roller
from the baseplate if you want to. The screw on the Rapidwinder has the same
thread as the screw on the baseplate (the only reason that I had the
Rapidwinder screw made was to eliminate marks on the baseplate screw, you can
undo it once without marring it, and then lock in the Roller with the screw on
the Rapidwinder and keep the screw on the baseplate looking pristine when you
upgrade the camera years later).
My biggest concern has always been that the post is brass and it stands out on
the  Rapidwinder. I have always planned to make it in alloy and anodize it
black as to blend in better, but there is a specific feel to the brass post.
It is the last piece I turn on one of my lathes when I assemble a Rapidwinder,
I thread the base and the hole on top, screw it down to hold down the inside
plate and put the small flathead screw in it and that to me signifies that
this winder is ready to try out and ultimately ship to a user. Somehow the
brass color makes it look “ready” in my mind.
I will be going to Fotokina in the fall and maybe I can convince Leica AG to
sell me these Rollers at a less exorbitant price, but until then, if you feel
you need it, just raid the baseplate for it.
Tom A
Tom Abrahamsson
Rapidwinder Webpage in English: (compliments of Hans Pahlen, Sweden)
http://home2.swipnet.se/~w-24872/rapidw.htm
http://www.komvux.skola.mark.se/rapidw.htm