Tried cleaning a sticky shutter with a drop of lighter fluid and it went bad

Had a Minolta X-700 come in with a slow second curtain, the classic gummy grease problem. Instead of a full strip down, I thought I'd try a tiny bit of Ronsonol on a cotton swab, just to free it up for a quick test. I put one small drop on the edge of the curtain track. It worked for about five shots, then the whole curtain started to bind up worse than before. The fluid must have spread and mixed with the old grease, making a real mess. Now I have to take the whole thing apart anyway, and I probably made the cleaning job harder. I learned that shortcuts with solvents can backfire big time, even if they seem to work at first. What's your go-to method for a first pass on a sticky shutter without a full teardown?

3 comments

3 Comments

lucas1592mo ago

Man that's rough, been there. What do you usually try first for a sticky shutter?

amy_reed791mo ago

Respectfully, I gotta disagree on the dry swab thing. Start with a tiny drop of lighter fluid on the swab, not just dry, because that sticky residue needs something to dissolve it. Dry swabs can actually push the gunk deeper into the mechanism and make it worse. A little fluid works way better in my experience.

sandra_anderson2mo ago

Honestly, I just use a dry swab first, like @lucas159 said.