Shoutout to the guy at the Akron swap meet who sold me a $15 Konica lens I figured was junk
Took it home, found the focus ring was just gummed up with old grease, and after an hour with a little lighter fluid it snaps into place smoother than the glass I paid $80 for, so now I want to know what other "dead" gear you all have rescued with a cheap fix instead of a full teardown.
Picked up a Rolleiflex at an estate sale years ago where the shutter was locked up solid and everyone assumed it was a goner. Turned out the whole issue was a tiny bit of old lube that had dried into basically glue on one gear, and a few drops of naphtha plus working the lever back and forth freed it right up. Here is the part nobody talks about though, sometimes that cheap fix is a trap because the old grease had already worn the metal underneath, so it runs smooth for a month and then starts sticking again worse than before. That Konica lens may hold up fine for years, but keep an eye on it, because a clean and relube only buys you time if the parts under all that gunk are still in decent shape. Still beats paying a shop three times what the lens cost, so I would do the same thing every time.