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Overheard a guy at the shop say ultrasonic cleaners ruin old shutters
I was dropping off a parts order at Precision Camera Works in Denver last Thursday and this older repairer was telling a customer he never puts vintage leaf shutters in an ultrasonic bath because the dried lubricant turns into a gritty paste. It made me second guess my whole cleaning method since I've been using my 2-liter Branson for years on Compur shutters with no obvious problems. Has anyone else had a shutter die right after ultrasonic cleaning, or is this guy just being overly cautious with his 1950s stuff?
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morganj8110d ago
That thing about the dried lubricant turning into a gritty paste is spot on. I've seen it happen with old Wollensak shutters where the grease has basically turned to wax over decades. The ultrasonic vibration doesn't dissolve it, it just breaks it up into these tiny abrasive particles that get into the blade pivots and make everything worse. I had a 1940s Ilex that worked fine before a bath, then came out with blades that stuck halfway open. Had to completely strip it down and hand clean every single part with lighter fluid. Maybe it's just the really old stuff that's at risk, but if you're doing a lot of pre-war gear, I'd probably stick to hand cleaning unless you're ready to do a full tear down after.
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