I tried two different methods for cleaning old shutter blades and one won by a mile

I had a beat up Pentax Spotmatic from a garage sale in Portland that had oil on the blades. First I tried the dry cleaning method with Q-tips and lighter fluid, but it just smeared the oil around and left streaks. Then I switched to using a single drop of Ronsonol on a lens tissue, blotting not rubbing, and let it sit for 30 seconds before wicking it off. Night and day difference, the blades look factory fresh now. Has anyone else found a better solvent for stubborn shutter gunk?

3 comments

3 Comments

hannahk1913d ago

OH MY GOD you let lighter fluid sit on the blades for 30 SECONDS?? That's terrifying! I'd be so scared it would seep into the shutter mechanism and wreck everything. I've only ever done the quick dab and wipe method with naphtha because I'm too chicken to let it soak. But honestly the blotting technique makes SO much sense now that you explain it - rubbing just pushes the gunk deeper into the gaps. I've been fighting with a stuck Yashica shutter for WEEKS and I bet I've been making it worse by scrubbing at it like an idiot. I'm going to try your method this weekend but I'm still gonna be nervous about leaving the solvent on that long. Did you test fire the shutter immediately after or did you let it dry out for a while first?

umathompson13d ago

30 seconds is nothing compared to what some repair guys do with a full soak in lighter fluid overnight. That stuff evaporates way faster than you think, especially if the shutter blades are metal and not some weird plastic. Lighter fluid is literally designed to burn off completely with zero residue, which is why it's the go-to for cleaning delicate mechanical stuff like this. If you're really worried, test it on a junker camera first before touching your Yashica. Honestly being too scared to soak the blades is probably what's keeping your shutter stuck in the first place. Sometimes you gotta be a little aggressive with old cameras or they'll just stay broken forever.

grace5089d ago

Exactly how being too careful with cameras keeps them broken is kinda like how people ruin their computer by never turning it off because they think it'll break. Sometimes you gotta just do the thing instead of worrying about it.