Ouch my eye!

Well today I decided to try and salvage the flying head that carries the #3 mirror and focusing lens. I had pretty much written it off, as it was partially encased in molten glass & plastic. It also fell into the fire, so I assumed the worst for the parts of it that I could not see.

If you don’t remember from the earlier pictures, this is what I started with:

I grabbed some pliers and started tearing away at the globs of plastic & glass. To my surprise most of it peeled away fairly easily, with just a few stubborn bits left stuck to the head. Once I got the bulk of it off, I tried to remove the lens/mirror assembly via the two thumb screws on the front [it is mean to to be easily removed/replaced]. Unfortunately it didn’t want to budge. So I proceeded to fully disassemble the head, by removing every screw I could find. Eventually it all came apart. Some plastic had mad it’s way inside and was gluing the lens to the case. A little prying and I got it free. After that I cleaned each part individually, mostly by gently scraping with a bare box-cutter blade.  I then re-assembled it.  And this is where it’s at now:

While it doesn’t quite look like new, it is a stark contrast to what it was before.  With the exception of some chipping and pitting on the anodized coating, the head is in very good shape, and appears to be totally usable. The optics within are another story, they are unrecoverable, but easily replaced now. The 3 arms on the head also normally have rubber bearings/wheels on them, these need to be replaced as well [also easily done]. Luckily, the spring loaded mechanism on the 3rd arm is working perfectly. I may get the head re-anodized to give it a like new look, it will depend on the cost to do so, and how many other parts need/warrant anodizing. Having said all that, I am ecstatic that I was able to salvage the flying head, it is one less item I will need to buy or engineer to replace.