Tried to clean a shutter with lighter fluid and learned my lesson

I was out in my garage last Saturday working on an old Pentax Spotmatic. The shutter blades were sticking at slower speeds, so I figured a quick lighter fluid rinse would do the trick. Well, I got too aggressive with the cotton swab and ended up bending one of the blade arms. Now the whole shutter assembly needs replacing. Has anyone else ruined a part by getting too rough with cleaning?

2 comments

2 Comments

simon_coleman16d ago

Oh man, I feel your pain on that "too aggressive with the cotton swab" part. That exact same thing happened to me with a Nikon FM2n I was trying to fix up a few years ago. I was swabbing the shutter blades and one of them just slipped out of alignment and bent the tiniest bit. There's that sickening moment when you see it happen. You almost don't want to look at it again. Those old mechanical shutters are so delicate, even a little too much pressure or the wrong angle can wreck everything. Now I always try to use a super gentle touch, like even just a little puff of air or a barely damp swab. It's a hard lesson to learn but you're definitely not the only one who's had to buy a replacement part because they got a little too eager with the cleaning.

simonp4716d ago

Three swabs in and I've got a paperweight too, @simon_coleman. Isn't it funny how one wrong move can turn a $200 camera into a $200 lesson?