Finally came around on ultrasonic cleaning for old shutters after 6 years

Last month I had a beat up Pentax Spotmatic with a sticky shutter that just wouldn't free up with my usual method of lighter fluid and patience. A guy named Dave at the camera swap meet in Portland told me to just drop the whole shutter assembly in his ultrasonic tank with some simple green diluted 10 to 1. I figured I'd ruin it but after 3 minutes it ran smooth as new with zero damage to the blades. Has anyone else had good luck with this on older cloth shutters or am I just getting lucky so far?

2 comments

2 Comments

leep3320d ago

Yeah that lines up with what I've seen. @webb.victor is right about the old school repair guys being careful with cloth shutters but I think it depends how gunked up they are. The low heat and short cycle seems to be the key.

webb.victor20d ago

Didn't Dave used to run a camera repair shop before he went into selling parts? I've heard his ultrasonic advice works on metal focal planes but cloth shutters are supposed to be a no-go.