I tried ultrasonic cleaning on a sticky shutter assembly and it wrecked the lubricant

I had this old Pentax K1000 with a shutter that was dragging around 1/500. Figured I'd drop the whole shutter assembly in my ultrasonic cleaner for 10 minutes with some electronics cleaner solution. Big mistake. The vibration stripped every bit of factory grease from the pivots and pivots slop made the timing even worse. Now I have to do a full disassembly and re-lube each part by hand which takes about 4 hours. Has anyone else seen ultrasonic cleaners mess up old camera mechanisms like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

jake_dixon21d ago

Ultrasonic cleaners also wreck old coil windings on vintage lenses.

dixon.ryan21d ago

Three years ago I ruined a perfectly good Helios 44-2 that way, @jake_dixon.