Dish soap trick for stuck shutter blades on a vintage Pentax

I had a Spotmatic that sat in a basement for 20 years. The shutter blades were completely stuck, oil turned to glue. I tried lighter fluid, naphtha, even heat with a hair dryer, nothing worked. A guy at my local camera shop told me to try a tiny drop of plain dish soap on the blades and work them gently with a toothpick. After about 15 minutes of careful wiggling they freed up and the shutter fired normally. Has anyone else used something weird like that for stubborn lubricant?

3 comments

3 Comments

river_hart1813d ago

Man that dish soap trick is wild... I did the exact same thing on an old Canon FTb that was gummed up worse than a stuck window. Used a toothpick with a tiny dab of Dawn and worked the blades back and forth for maybe 20 minutes, and they finally started moving. It sounds crazy but sometimes the simplest stuff cuts through that old grease better than all those fancy solvents.

willow73212d ago

Feels good when a cheap fix actually works, right?

felix_bailey455d ago

Used to think dish soap was only for dishes (dumb, I know) until my own Yashica Mat 124G seized up and nothing else worked. Tried lighter fluid, brake cleaner, even a bit of sewing machine oil - all no good. A buddy said to try a microscopic dab of dish soap on the shutter leaves, and I thought he was nuts. Figured I'd wreck the thing anyway so why not, right? After ten minutes of gentle poking with a toothpick the blades started moving again and it's been fine ever since. Kinda humbling seeing a simple kitchen product outdo all the fancy chemicals.