Picked up a tip at a camera show in Chicago that changed my approach to shutter repairs

I was at the Photographic Historical Society show in Arlington Heights last fall and an old repair guy showed me how he uses a dental pick to align shutter blades instead of tweezers. He said tweezers put too much pressure and can bend the tiny pins, and I have to admit it's been way easier on the Copal shutters I work on. Has anyone else found a weird tool that just works better for specific repairs?

3 comments

3 Comments

perry.evan3d ago

Oh man, that dental pick tip is gold. I've been using tweezers forever on my Compur shutters and I swear I've snapped at least two of those little alignment pins clean off. Did he show you a specific angle or way to hold the pick to get at the blades without scratching them? I tried a sewing needle once but it was way too sharp and left little marks. I'm thinking a dulled down dental pick might be the happy medium. Also, what brand did he recommend, or did he just say any cheap one from the drugstore works?

averywilliams2d ago

He bent the tip at a 45 degree angle right at the end, then filed the point flat with a fine stone. I tried it on a junk shutter first and it worked way better than a needle because the flat tip won't dig in. He just said grab a basic set from CVS or Walgreens nothing fancy, just the metal ones with replaceable tips.

ryan_gibson841d ago

Actually bending the tip at 45 degrees was the trick, leaves way more control than trying to go straight in. And yeah, just grab the cheap CVS set, the flat filed tip won't scratch anything.