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That $12 helicoil kit almost ruined a Pentax 67 I was fixing | Camera Repairers - Free To Speak

That $12 helicoil kit almost ruined a Pentax 67 I was fixing

Picked up a cheap helicoil set on Amazon to save a stripped tripod mount on a Pentax 67, and the coil cross-threaded halfway in, locking the screw solid. Took me 45 minutes with a broken tap extractor to dig it out, and the mount still has a wobble. Has anyone else had luck with the name brand kits over the bargain ones, or should I just start recommending a new bottom plate instead?

2 comments

2 Comments

jessica7071mo ago

My buddy Dave tried the same thing on his Mamiya RB67 last summer, bought the cheap kit off some random site and the tap snapped clean off inside the mount hole. He spent almost two hours at my kitchen table with a coffee stir stick and super glue trying to fish the broken piece out, sweating like crazy the whole time. Finally got it out but the threads looked like they had been chewed by a raccoon, so he ended up sending the whole bottom plate to a repair guy anyway. That repair cost him like eighty bucks on top of the wasted kit money, so I told him he should have just bought the new plate from the start. For a tank like the Pentax 67, I'd skip the gamble and just do the plate swap, it's not worth the heart attack.

jamief671mo ago

Honestly, I did the same thing with a $10 kit on a beat-up K1000 last year. The coil grabbed like a dog on a bone halfway through, and I spent a whole evening with a tiny pic set and dental floss trying to get it out. Ended up twisting the flange too, so the whole bottom plate was toast. The name brand ones, like the Helicoil brand with the proper lube, thread in way smoother, but honestly for a Pentax 67 I'd just buy a new plate. That body's too heavy for a sloppy repair, and the wobble will only get worse with a 105mm lens hanging off it.