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TIL those cheap plastic lens spanners from China are actually worth the $8
I always thought you needed a solid metal spanner for lens element work, the kind that costs $50 or more. A guy at a swap meet in Portland last year sold me a set of three plastic ones for less than a coffee, and I laughed. But I was stuck on a Minolta lens with a stuck rear group last week, and my good spanner was too thick. Out of pure frustration, I tried the thin plastic one. It flexed just enough to get under the tiny notches without slipping and scratching the brass. It worked perfectly. I've used it on three more jobs since. Has anyone else had a tool they wrote off turn out to be a secret weapon for a specific fix?
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thea_carter7d ago
That "too thick" thing is exactly why I kept my old metal one in a drawer. The cheap thin ones just fit where the good tools can't.
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rodriguez.cora7d ago
Hold up, thea_carter, you're telling me you keep a whole separate tool just because it's thin? That seems like a waste of a drawer. A good, solid tool should be able to handle 99% of jobs without bending or breaking. If you need something paper-thin to get into a weird spot, maybe the design is the problem, not the tool. I'd rather have one reliable thing that works hard than a drawer full of specialty items for made-up problems.
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