That guy at the camera swap who fixed my shutter with a toothpick

I was at a camera swap in Portland last spring, frustrated with a sticky shutter on an old Minolta. A retiree next to me just watched for a minute, then pulled out a toothpick and gently nudged a tiny gear. He said 'oil gummed it up, don't use WD40'. I was skeptical but he walked me through the whole thing right there on the table. He didn't charge me or try to sell anything, just talked about how he learned from his dad in the 70s. That five minute interaction changed my whole approach to cleaning shutters. Now I keep a box of toothpicks in my kit and always ask before using any solvent. Anyone else had a random stranger at a show teach them something simple like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

ray3631mo ago

The real question is how many of us actually followed through and changed our habits after that kind of encounter. I met an old watchmaker at a ham radio meet who showed me how to clean potentiometers with a pencil eraser, said it worked better than any spray. I nodded along, thought it was neat, then went right back to using contact cleaner for the next two years before I finally tried his way. He was completely right. So did you actually stop using solvents altogether, or did you just add toothpicks to your kit and still reach for the spray when you're in a hurry? Because I bet most people do the second thing even if they don't admit it.

lisaf381mo ago

It's wild how the best advice comes from people who aren't trying to sell you anything. I've noticed that happens a lot at flea markets and swap meets, not just with cameras but with tools and even old kitchen stuff. There's this whole underground network of retired folks who just want to pass on little tricks they figured out decades ago, and they never make you feel dumb for not knowing. Idk, it's like the whole point of those shows sometimes is just trading knowledge between strangers.