Hit a brick wall on a Contax T2 shutter rebuild, then a guy in Portland showed me something

I was stuck on a sticky leaf shutter for three days until a retired repair guy at the Portland Camera Swap Meet showed me how to use a tiny dab of Ronsonol lighter fluid instead of the usual cleaner. Has anyone else found a weird trick that saves a stuck shutter without disassembling the whole lens block?

3 comments

3 Comments

joel_hall1725d agoMost Upvoted

Shove a lighter fluid soaked q-tip in there and pray you don't melt something. Classic Portland fix - those swap meet guys always have some weird trick they learned in the 70s. I tried using WD-40 once on a stuck Pentax shutter and it just made everything sticky and smell like a garage for a month. But hey, if it works it works. Just don't tell the purists you used Ronsonol or they'll write you a strongly worded letter about lubricant migration. Next thing you know someone will show up with a bottle of tequila claiming it cleans shutter blades.

nancy81724d agoMost Upvoted

Is that the same lighter fluid that melts plastic viewfinders?

emery_black25d agoTop Commenter

Honestly I feel that so hard. The WD-40 mistake is basically a rite of passage at this point, I did the exact same thing on a old Minolta and it took me weeks to get that rancid smell out of my bag. Ngl the tequila thing got a laugh out of me but I've definitely seen someone try vodka on a sticky shutter release at a meetup, dude was dead serious too. It's rough out here when you're just trying to keep some beat up vintage gear working without a repair guy charging you more than the camera's worth. I've got a beat up Nikon F2 that's been sitting in a drawer for two years because I'm too scared to mess with the shutter again after I made things worse with alcohol wipes. Just solidarity honestly, we're all just out here doing our best with questionable solvents and prayers.