PSA: stop dunking shutter blades in lighter fluid, just use naphtha on a swab
Last Tuesday I had a Canon AE-1 on the bench with a lazy second curtain, and I had to pick between soaking the whole shutter assembly in lighter fluid like the old guys taught me or just cleaning the blades with a naphtha soaked swab and a blast of air. I went with the swab, took about 20 minutes, and the curtain snapped back at 1/1000 with no oil streaks on the blades at all. Anyone else ditch the soak method, or am I the only one scared of what lighter fluid does to the curtain lube?
Wait, old guys actually taught you to dunk the whole shutter in lighter fluid? That would've made me nervous too. I always thought the soak thing was for people who didn't want to take the shutter apart, but hearing it's a real shop method is kind of wild to me. Twenty minutes with a swab sounds way better than bathing the whole assembly and hoping the lube survives. The naphtha evaporates clean and doesn't leave that residue behind, so I get why you bailed on the dunk. I've only done the swab thing on a couple of bodies but it worked fine every time.