Just realized my old trick for cleaning shutter blades is a bad idea now

I was working on a Minolta X-700 last week, and the shutter was sticking. My go-to for years was a tiny drop of lighter fluid on a swab to clean the old grease off the blades. This time, it left a faint haze on the metal that wouldn't come off. I think the newer, thinner blade coatings just don't hold up to that solvent anymore. I had to source a whole new set of blades, which took two days. Has anyone else run into this with newer old stock parts?

3 comments

3 Comments

tarab5411d agoMost Upvoted

Oh, that haze is probably from the fluid dissolving the old lubricant and redepositing it as a film. I've found that modern shutter blade alloys, or even the coatings on NOS parts, really don't play nice with naptha anymore. You almost have to use a pure, fast-evaporating solvent like isopropyl alcohol now, and even then you dab, never rub.

the_david11d ago

Ugh, @tarab54, you just explained my last disaster.

olivia_chen3510d ago

Just picture me last month, trying to clean an old Minolta with some naptha like the old guides say. Ended up with a shutter that looked like it was smeared with Vaseline. Had to take the whole thing apart again and use so much alcohol I got a little lightheaded. Modern camera parts are way too fussy for the old ways.