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Old repair guy told me to clean the shutter blades with lighter fluid
I had a Yashica-Mat that was acting up, shutter speeds all over the place. Brought it to this guy named Frank who ran a shop out of his garage near Pittsburgh. He said just use Ronsonol lighter fluid on a Q-tip and dab the blades. I was nervous thinking it would ruin the coating or something. But I tried it on a junker lens first, and it worked perfect. 6 months later that Yashica is still running smooth as butter. Has anyone else used that trick on older leaf shutters or is it just a regional thing?
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the_amy9d ago
That's exactly the kind of advice you'd never get from a big city repair shop, you know? Frank sounds like my kind of guy, just telling it like it is. I had a similar experience with an old flea market Polaroid that had sticky blades, and a friend swore by the lighter fluid trick too. It felt so wrong putting anything flammable near my camera, but it worked like a charm. There's just something about those old school repair guys who learned their trade before everything went digital. They don't overthink things, they just know what works.
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