I thought I could fix that stuck shutter with just a squirt of cleaner

I was working on a Nikon F3 for a regular customer in my shop last Tuesday. The shutter was sticking at 1/500, so I sprayed some contact cleaner into the mechanism without taking it apart first. That just pushed old grease into the magnet assembly and made it worse. I had to fully strip the top plate and clean each part with pure alcohol, which took over two hours. What's your go-to method for a sticky focal plane shutter when you're trying to avoid a full tear-down?

4 comments

4 Comments

hugotaylor1mo ago

Ever try using a tiny drop of lighter fluid first, like @lee18 might walk away from? What's your first move when the shutter feels slow but not totally stuck?

paige16613d ago

Lighter fluid is a pretty wild suggestion. For a slow shutter, I'd start with a proper shutter oil, not something you'd use on a grill.

wright.leo1mo ago

Come on, sometimes you gotta try the quick fix first... you can't know it's a full strip-down job until you test the simple solution. A little cleaner has saved me hours before when it was just a bit of surface gunk.

lee181mo ago

Ever notice how the quick fix almost always makes things worse... like trying to wipe a smudge and just spreading it around? I've learned to just walk away for a minute before I touch anything.