Resolved issue with Ikelite port and zoom gear

I had a problem with my Ikelite housing for my Digital Rebel when I first got it two months ago, and after marksteele sent me a message about the same problem, I thought I'd share my problem and resolution with the group.

When I first got the housing, the zoom gear did not appear to fit inside the dome port - it "stuck" and wouldn't turn, plus the port was sticking out about .5" too much to lock to the housing. I examined it closely, and decided the problem was that when they "welded" the acrylic dome to the cylindrical part of the port, they didn't clean the edge well enough - there was a rough ridge of 1/16" or so if you took the port off the housing and ran your finger around the inside rim of the port near the dome, and it was jamming against the zoom gear when I tried to slide it in to the port. It was also making it impossible to turn.

Being the brave, stupid soul that I am, and being WAY too impatient to send it back (particularly with an impending trip to Hawaii), I whipped out my Dremel tool and ground off the rough edge and made it even with the cylinder. Now the zoom gear fits inside the port cylinder and turns smoothly. I expect Ikelite has already repaired this, but if anyone else was seeing this issue, I figured I would put this out there. If you're not as foolish as I am, you might want to send your dome port back to Ikelite if you are having this problem.

Overall, I love the housing and have been very happy with it, once I resolved this issue, and it shouldn't reflect on Ikelite's customer service that I jumped right in to do it myself.

Remember to grease the port o-ring. It should slide in much easier and the snaps will be easier to lock down.

HTH

James

Remember to grease the port o-ring.

:oops: I tried to He-Man my dome onto the front. I spent several minutes trying to force it one, before I decided I was going to have to take the wimpy way out and read the manual.

I put a little fingertips worth of the supplied grease and the port slide right on.

:oops:

That's certainly good advice - the port o-ring definitely needs to be greased, or it is near impossible to get the port to lock initially - but the issue I (and Mark) had was with the zoom gear not fitting up inside the port. I'd already greased the o-ring, and the housing worked wonderfully except I couldn't insert the zoom/focus gear sleeve, or the port wouldn't close.

I understand. Just wanted to point it out again as people get confused w/ the Ike housings. The rear o-ring (compression design) does NOT need greasing. The port o-ring (piston design) DOES need greasing.

Thanks for posting your fix and how you got your setup working Chris.

Cheers

James

James -

Im glad you brought this up.. I was assembling my d70 housing last night and read NO Grease on housing o-ring.. I forgot to ask Tom at Ikelite about this... Is it Ok just to use a little on the housing o-ring..? Will seal not be as effective?

Thanks!

M.

a greased o-ring can attract hairs, etc......if it doesn't need it, don't do it....the grease only helps with friction, it's totally useless in a compression situation

Karl

I am not as opposed to a slight amount of lube on the back as I am to ports that require machining by the customer. How embarrassing............!

I think an itsybitsy bit of lube on the back ring helps clean the ring when you are putting your gear together. It hapls with not stretching the o-ring while running it thru your fingers. I lube it just a bit and then I run the ring thru a clean closed cell makeup sponge that is lightly wrapped around the ring. This cleans the oring really well, but does not stretch it. Sofar I have not seen any disadvantage to using a bit of lube