boggyfresh

After a 1 month battle... finally took it apart! Leslie I did actually miss 2 small, real deep screws (heart0less pointed them out earlier in the thread). That helped separate the front focusing element from the 2 rear cylinders, which were still "welded" together so my problem wasn't quite solved yet. Decided to throw that part into the freezer for 30 min. Meanwhile boiled about an inch of water in a pan (it's like I'm on a cooking show). Put the cold lens inside a Ziploc bag and sat into the water bath with the black rim facing down (this element needed to expand since the other is screwed into it). After that the rubber strap wrenches finished the job with barely any force needed. Great success??

Leslie - really great tips thank you! So far it's Isco 3 - me 0. No dice on WD-40, rubber wrenches or vise and pipe wrench.... It's laughable at this point ??? I'm trying to unscrew it counter-clockwise because I was able to unscrew the small top piece (pictured on right) that way. My next step will be trying to expand the metal with heat and then maybe lower the temperature of the front of the lens, but going to do so with a plastic zip-lock and hot water (the oven would worry me a little). Maybe this combined with WD-40 again would work. Stay tuned for my findings.

After about a week of searching, I came to a realization that this is the only site/thread offering substantial help on unscrewing the rear element off the ISCO anamorphic lens... Unfortunately, the wrenches above did not work for me:( Any other suggestions would be IMMENSELY appreciated.