Watch out for those shutter curtain springs on old Nikons

Went to a repair meetup in Portland last month and someone brought in a beat up F2 that had a snapped curtain spring. Three of us tried to fix it on the spot and every single one of us launched the spring across the room at least once. Those things are tiny and they fly like crazy. I always thought I had steady hands but that little sucker taught me otherwise. If you work on these old SLRs please get a magnetic parts tray and work inside a clear plastic bag. My buddy actually stepped on the spring and bent it beyond saving. That camera is now a parts donor because of a stupid mistake. Has anyone else had this happen or do you have a trick for keeping those springs under control?

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the_lee22d ago

...my buddy Dave had this exact thing happen with his FE. He had the spring in the tweezers, sneezed, and it just vanished into the carpet. We spent like 45 minutes on our hands and knees with a flashlight before we found it stuck to the bottom of his shoe. The weird part is he still has the spring, but he's too scared to even open the camera again. That thing basically lives in a ziploc bag now as a trophy of defeat.