Uploaded by wscotgrey SEND US YOUR BEST FIXES!

Fix a lens frame

Before

Before

After

After

The Nikon 18-200 lens is the workhorse of the Nikon semi-professional. This one had been dropped and while nothing internally was damaged, the support frame - the backbone of the lens - had been chipped. Repair isn't cost effective for this part, since you might as well build a new lens with the rest of the parts. 

By using some sugru and a filter, I was able to reconstruct the chipped piece. I threaded the filter on and then moulded the sugru into the space. 

Other fixes, like tape, don't work here because the lens hood has very little clearance there and catches on anything that sticks out above the lens. 

After the sugru had set, I unthreaded the filter, (not easy when the sugru sets into the threads,) and sliced off the excess inside the frame ring so it is flush with the rest of the frame. I then threaded the filter back on (after a good cleaning, of course.) 

This fix is great because while I could use a filter before to support the frame so everything worked, on rainy days the humidity would get behind the filter and cause fogging. Not to mention the wicked amount of dust that got in there. Now the seal is perfect, I used it for a shoot during the biggest rainstorm this year and had no fog for the entire shoot! Plus the sugru blends in perfectly with the original plastics. I am really pleased with the sugru and can't wait to find other stuff to fix with it! Thanks!