Rebuilding a Bogen 3047 Head....Revisited....part II....
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 พ.ย. 2024
- I recently purchased another 3047 Bogen head on eBay for cheap. Upon disassembly, I noticed a profound design difference between my original 3047 and the eBay one. Will damping grease save the day?!?!! Watch this chilling thriller to find out!!
Link to original video:
• Rebuilding a Bogen 304...
Music by Kevin MacLeod
NYE PG-44a grease can be purchased from Tom Madden @ TAI. His contact number is 302-362-0200.
Great video, Donnie. I have one of these older 3047s that I inherited from my pops. Many decades old I expect. I will be using for stills, but I even so, I can’t stand how rough the action is right now since I know from you video that I can make it better.
I have the grease on order and look forward to digging into this project after it gets delivered.
Thanks for the info on the PG-44A grease ! Treated both of my video heads with it and they work great. It also made a big difference on my Gimbal Head.Thanks Again !
Awesome! Glad it helped. When it comes to smooth head operation, that stuff is like the miracle elixir from the Gods.
Great job on the rebuild, I also have a 3047 which i've owned since new about 30 years. Mine looks more like your old one. I really appreciate your explanation on the pins in the tapered bearing and how they work. I was making too much out of how to adjust them and my caps broke off also when i removed them. Btw, I think yours is the only video on rebuilding a 3047! take care! Roger.
You're very welcome, Roger. Glad the video helped.
After your video I splurged on a container of the near-mystical Nye PG-44A damping grease hoping to fix up a used, abysmally performing Manfroto 141RC tripod head.
Cleaned everything with paper towels, then with isopropyl alcohol to get all the previous gunk removed.
As per your advice I warmed up the container first, but that stuff just remained incredibly sticky and hard to handle. It later took me at least 10 minutes of washing hands with warm water, soap, isopropyl alcohol and applying talcum powder to (mostly) get rid of the stickiness - definitely recomment gloves for anyone trying to handle that grease.
Unfortunately my bad luck did not appear to stop with the incredibly hard-to-get-off-my-hands grease, after the application of the grease to the tilt shaft the damping was so strong tilting was barely possible. In fact it was so bad I did not even try to apply it to other components.
Might you have any further insights or ideas on how to properly apply the grease to get it to work as in your case and maybe some good advice on how to get it off ones hands? As it stands I now own a very expensive but ultimately useless tub of grease and will have to try more conventional lubricants for regreasing my tripod head.
Hey Kristian. In the original video, I suggest using carb cleaner to manage the cleaning duties, which includes hands.
th-cam.com/video/jlJ-dRw-DyY/w-d-xo.html
I also suggest a very thin layer of the stuff. And then you have to work it in by rotating the head around in both directions. Make sure the pinch bolts are completely loose (all of them), and she should work well for you. Watch the original video to get a little more insight. Please let me know your results.
P.S. Alcohol is a very poor cleaner that will barely touch this damping grease, as you have discovered. Get that carb cleaner.
P.S.S. Don't forget the adjustment screws!!
Hi Donnie,
Thank you for your quick answer, and while at it thank you for both videos as well. They helped quite a bit in getting my tripod head disassembled in the first place.
Carb cleaner, huh? I was under the impression that it's used to get rid of old non-PG-44A grease, apparently I missed that remark and didn't get the idea that it can be used to clean off PG-44A as well. I'll try to get a hold of some, thank you for the tip.
As for the performance, I think I've narrowed it down on three possibilities in the meantime and if possible I'd like to get your feedback / opinion on the likelihood of them being contributing factors:
1) Amount of applied grease. I was very generous with the application. Might it be that the less-is-more principle applies?
2) Temperature. The Nye datasheet for PG-44A states the recommended servicing temperature range from 20-120°C (68-248°F). I'm on the lower end of the spectrum, and ouside it's definitely colder. Might the performance be influenced this badly by the temperature? In that case the grease would be useless here as temperatures easily fall below that range.
3) Base clamping pressure. The tilt joint of the Manfrotto 141RC does not have a screw to adjust the, for lack of a better description, minimal clamping pressure on the pin / axle. In my case all ungreased joints are easy to assemble and move around, except the tilt axle which coincidentially was the first one I applied PG-44A to. Might it be that I need to ever so slightly bend the tilt axis clamp such that without grease the axle can be inserted and move easily?
I'd be very grateful to be pointed in the right direction.
Hey Kristian. Allow me to answer your questions in the order you asked them.
1) Yes, less is more. Apply as little as possible while still covering the entire bearing surface. If you notice, I use very little.
2) Colder will definitely be stiffer.
3) Base clamping pressure is DEFINITELY a factor. Start loose, and then tighten as much as you can withOUT increasing stiffness. Think of it as doing any other mechanical repair were a clearance is specified. Imagine you want .004" of clearance.
When I use my tripod, only the roll axis is tight. Occasionally I tighten the tilt axis, and never tighten the pan axis.
Good luck!
Hi Donnie,
It took some time and effort but I am happy to be able to report great success!
First of all while I did not go out to buy some carb cleaner I had another look at Nye's recommendations for cleaning. They say to use a hydrocarbon solvent (Hexane, mineral spirits or an Isopar product), so I tried benzine / cleaner's naphta which I remembered I had on hand. That worked wonders.
Next, it turned out the fit and clearance of all three axis was between bad and abysmal (too much clamping force by default, uneven resistance), and lacking any setscrews for adjustment I had to go in with a Dremel with a polishing wheel (and metal polishing compound) and where it was worse, sandpaper first. For the final fitting I just directly smeared the cleaned joints with polishing compound, put them together and started turning, twisting and moving the parts in general to get rid of any uneven high spots. Once that was done I got something between 0.05 and 0.15mm clearance by my estimate (should be between 2 and 6 thou in imperial if my math is correct). Basically free, pretty much resistanceless turning, but no rattling. Finally sparsely applied some pre-warmed PG-44A, really rubbing it in and spreading it around and reassembled everything. Now I get smooth, dampened motion in all three axis. Success!
Your feedback and advice was instrumental in getting to this result, I really must thank you for your help, thank you very much indeed!
That's a great story, Kristian. My only regret is that I wasn't there with my camera to document your entire process...:^) As you and I have discovered, my tutorial assumes good bearing surfaces. I live in the high desert region of the U.S., and therefore forget that there are other parts of the world that aren't as corrosion-free as my part of the world. As you discovered, one must first address corrosion issues first BEFORE moving forward with the instructions set forth in the video.
Regarding Carb Cleaner... As an avid shade tree mechanic, I always have a couple cans on hand. So that was my cleaner of choice. Glad you found another good solvent.
You should post a video to show how smooth your camera tripod is. I don't know about you, but even a 285mm lens on full zoom is smooth as glass.
Great video, Donnie. I was given 3221 tripod with the older 3047 head (on the left). It certainly needs a rebuild. Question, is the new and older head about the same weight? Thanks man.
Hey Allen. I'm glad you found the video helpful. Regarding the cost of the grease, I hope you're sitting down. The container I purchased was 80 bux. You will find that damping grease is not only very expensive, but hard to find. Fortunately, I have provided a name and number in the Discription section. Hopefully, that number still works. Good luck, my friend!
Hey Donnie. Thanks for the info on the cost. If I had waited til the end of the video, I'd of heard you mention it. What I'm curious about is the weight comparison of the two heads. Are they about the same? Products sometimes get lighter with revisions. Thanks.
Honestly, I didn't weigh them. But I can tell you that they feel the same, and the materials used and the amount of material looks identical. The only difference between the two are a couple minor design changes. Otherwise, they're nearly identical.
@@drummerdonniedotcom Thanks for all this info. Much appreciated, sir.
You are very welcome, my friend.