Rant: Tried cleaning a stuck shutter with a drop of lighter fluid

Had a Pentax K1000 with a slow second curtain, so I put a tiny bit of Ronsonol on the pivot like an old timer showed me. The whole thing seized up solid after a day, and now I'm looking at a full strip down. What's your go-to method for a sticky cloth shutter that actually works?

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3 Comments

mary3096mo ago

Learned that lesson the hard way myself, turned a slow shutter into a paperweight. My go-to is a tiny drop of pure naphtha on a toothpick, just on the metal pivot, never the cloth. Let it work in overnight. If that doesn't free it, the thing needs a proper clean. Lighter fluid leaves gunk behind as it dries, which is probably what locked yours up solid.

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wendy9786mo ago

Guess we've all got a paperweight story now.

1

the_logan5mo ago

Remember my first "paperweight"? Tried to fix a sticky shutter with some old WD-40 I found in the garage. Woke up to a brick of congealed grease and regret. That camera still sits on my shelf as a monument to bad ideas.

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