Dropped a full CLA job when my bench light died mid-shutter

Was working on a Pentax K1000 last Tuesday in my basement shop in Akron, and my swing-arm LED just flickered out right as I was seating the shutter curtain. I lost track of which screw was the third one in the sequence, panicked, and tried to guess by feel. Ended up bending the curtain guide rail and the shutter jammed on the first test fire. I had to eat the $45 in parts and told the customer it would be two extra weeks, which felt awful. Since then I bolted a cheap backup shop lamp to the wall and I check it before every teardown. Anyone else have a lighting failure cost them a repair, or am I the only one dumb enough to work blind?

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jordan33028d agoMost Upvoted

That backup lamp is a smart move. The real killer is when you lose your place in the middle of a job and your brain just goes blank. Same thing happened to me once with a Yashica and a bad solder joint, I forgot which wire went where and melted a whole flex cable trying to fix it. Now I keep a cheap headlamp on a lanyard around my neck too. That way, even if the main light goes, I can just tilt my head and keep going without breaking focus. Also started taking a quick phone photo of the repair area before I pull anything apart. Costs zero dollars and saves you from guessing later.