Spare parts or even the knowledge to repair are getting rare for Olympus FT lenses. The European Service Center tends to replace lenses rather than repairing them. When you send in your lens you may end up with a replacement rather than the repaired original lens or they return it without any repair at all. That’s against my view of reducing waste. I therefore started to design and print spare parts whenever I need some. If there’s a need for further spare parts, I may extend the portfolio.
Focus rings are printed in TPU. That’s a rubber-like material quite similar to the original focus rings. The material is currently available in white and black.
TPU is printed in a selective laser sinter process. Printers for this process are expensive and can’t be run in a household environment. I therefore have the focus rings printed at Shapeways. Some time ago, Shapeways released TPU to be available for webshop products. Now, focus rings can be ordered dirctly through my Shapeways Webshop.
FT 50mm f2.0 Macro
The focus ring of my FT 50mm f2.0 macro lens dissolved after years of intense use. The rubber crumbled and got all sticky. I removed it carefully with a spatula and wiped off the remaining stains with tissues and alcohol. The new ring is simply slid over the cleaned lens. A thin rim keeps the ring in place.
FT 14–54mm f2.8–3.5 version II
I designed the rings on request for an owner of the lens. The rings can be mounted to the lens without disassembling the lens. The original rings tend to crumble and dissolve (focus ring) or swell and detach from the lens (zoom ring).