Appreciation post: The old guy in Phoenix who taught me about shutter curtains

Last week, a customer brought in a 1960s Nikon F with a sticky shutter. I was about to order a new curtain, but this older guy who runs a shop down the street saw it and stopped by. He showed me a trick with a tiny bit of lighter fluid on a cotton swab to clean the old lube off the tracks, something he learned 30 years ago. It worked perfectly and saved the original part. Has anyone else had a local repairer share a weird, old-school fix that actually worked?

3 comments

3 Comments

noah_murray1mo ago

Read about a guy fixing a stuck Hasselblad with a drop of sewing machine oil on the advance gears. Said the old Swedish repair manuals actually called for it. Not what you'd try first, but sometimes the old ways are the right tools.

thompson.nathan1mo ago

Those old hacks are a huge gamble. Lighter fluid can damage seals and dry out other parts, and sewing machine oil might not be the right viscosity for camera gears. You might fix one problem but cause a bigger one down the line. Modern synthetic lubes and proper replacement parts are just safer bets for a lasting repair.

thomas.mark28d ago

My buddy had a Pentax with a slow mirror. Some retired repairman told him to put a tiny drop of watch oil on the pivot post, said the factory service bulletins mentioned it. He was super nervous but it actually fixed the bounce.