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I finally figured out why my shutter jobs kept coming back, and it was the Q-tip all along
Had a customer bring back a Pentax K1000 three times in two months, shutter capping at 1/1000 every time, and I could not figure out what I was doing wrong. Turns out I was dragging a Q-tip soaked in lighter fluid along the shutter curtain rails and leaving tiny fibers behind, which was gumming up the travel after about 200 shots. A retired guy at the shop on 5th in Portland watched me do it once and just said "you're combing the rails, not cleaning them." Switched to lint-free foam swabs and folded paper strips, and that camera has run clean for 6 months now. Anyone else have a tool in their kit that was secretly making things worse?
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lewis.brian16d ago
My worst one was aerosol contact cleaner on focus helicoids. Blew out the old grease real nice, but it also stripped the lube out of the bearing races and left a dry film that made the focus gritty within a week. Started using a needle and a small brush to clean the threads by hand, then re-lube with a proper grease. That one took me way too long to figure out.
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