Learned a trick for unsticking frozen shutter blades with a drop of naphtha

I had a Minolta SRT-101 sitting on my bench for weeks with the shutter blades stuck halfway open. Tried cleaning them with isopropyl alcohol and it did nothing. Then a guy on the Facebook repair group told me to use lighter fluid (naphtha) instead, just one tiny drop on each blade hinge. Worked like magic after letting it sit for 10 minutes, the shutter fires perfectly now. Has anyone else tried naphtha on sticky leaf shutters?

2 comments

2 Comments

kelly38512d ago

That's awesome. I love how lighter fluid just cuts through stuff that alcohol can't touch. It's like that thing where people swear by nail polish remover for certain adhesives but you gotta know the right solvent for the right job. I've seen the same pattern with sticky locks in old houses where WD40 won't cut it but a little graphite powder does the trick. People get too hung up on one "miracle" product when half the time you just need the right chemical match for what you're actually dealing with. Makes me wonder how many perfectly good cameras got tossed because someone didn't try naphtha first.

the_cameron12d ago

Same theory applies to rusty bike chains, @kelly385 - WD40 just makes it worse but a drop of naphtha frees it right up.