The handles, handle support plates and anodes are all assembled dry, i.e. no lubricant or anti seize compound. Or at least none I could see.
I lived on yachts for 23 years, and stainless fittings on masts always had Duralac anti-seize compound on the threads of the screws, so you could get them out at some future date. Otherwise the dissimilar metals and seawater would bind things together forever. So I like to do this on housings too.
Duralac is a corrosion inhibitor and a yellow gooey paste that gets everywhere of you’re not careful. First I removed the handles, put plenty of goup on the threads and reassembled.
I don’t like having balls sticking out of my housing; they are slow to disconnect and often make the housing larger than it need be. I like flat dovetails parallel with the film plane, probably a hang-up from using Oceanic flash arm plates many years ago. The aluminium plates on top of the Nauticam handles don’t have holes where I need. Last housing, I had the dimples each side of the 6mm aluminium plate welded up, and new holes drilled and tapped M5 x .8 for the dovetail screws. Then, I made stainless steel support plates to go between the housing and the handles because I could have them made here for a fraction of the retail price. The new housing came with these plates. This time, rather than have the dimples filled with weld metal, I just made new handle top plates out of some marine grade 6mm aluminium plate and drilled the three holes in each that were required. The small holes are tapped M5 x .8.
The whole assembly was put together with plenty of Duralac. My thinking is this; anywhere that seawater can lodge, I want filled with Duralac or grease before I take the housing underwater. Rinsing is all very well, but not having salt on sensitive parts at all is best.
One issue I have is the handles. My wife has small hands, and it would be a simple matter to increase the thickness of the plastic where the bolt goes through by 10mm, so that people like me could file away 10mm from the inside of the handle and thus bring it 10mm closer to the housing. Handles are available in two sizes, but I am unsure whether the small handles are closer to the housing.
Having bought a new housing, I have no coins left for securing the camera to the tray. Last housing, I filed a bit of stainless to fit as a handle in the camera securing screw. Normally I would silver solder it to the screw, but I was lazy and superglued it in position. This worked just fine! One trick is to clean both parts with abrasive paper and soap (not detergent); traces of remaining soap helps to polymerise the cyanoacrylate. This time, I bought a stainless steel TIG rod, 3.2mm, bent the end to roughly the right curvature (to fit the curved slot in the camera screw), flattened it a bit with a hammer so it was a good fit in the screw, then cut and filed it to reduce the profile. You may have to lift it a little to get the tray in with no camera, but it’s infinitely preferable to having to borrow a coin… The indignity!
The new body cap and extension cap are a great improvement over the initial version.
I have not as yet disassembled any controls; I like plenty of grease between the shafts and the anodized aluminium to keep seawater from lodging there. But that’s just me…
Overall, the housing exudes intelligent design and beautiful engineering. I can’t wait to use it!
