Tried ultrasonic cleaning on a shutter assembly and it wrecked the blades

I got a cheap ultrasonic cleaner off Amazon last month and decided to test it on a sticky shutter assembly from a Pentax Spotmatic. Ran it for 10 minutes with plain distilled water and the blades came out warped and bent. Lesson learned - never put shutter blades in an ultrasonic bath unless you know exactly what metal they are. Anybody else have a cleaning method that backfired on a specific camera part?

2 comments

2 Comments

patriciamoore1mo ago

I had the same problem with a Ricohflex TLR a few years back. I used a tiny drop of naphtha lighter fluid on a q-tip and gently dabbed the shutter blades. Let it evaporate completely before testing anything. It worked fine after that and didn't hurt the metal. Stick to that kind of solvent if you can, it's a lot safer than an ultrasonic bath for those old assemblies.

victor_adams951mo ago

Bet that cleaned the gunk off real good right before it killed the shutter forever.

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