Tried ultrasonic cleaning on a shutter assembly, completely ruined the blade timing

I read a bunch of posts here saying ultrasonic cleaners are safe for most metal parts as long as you use the right solution. Figured I'd try it on a sticky shutter from a Pentax Spotmatic. Ran it for 10 minutes in a mild solution, dried everything off, and reassembled. Now the blades overlap by a full 2mm and the curtain timing is way off. Learned the hard way that even if the solvent is mild, the vibration can shift lubricants and bend thin blades out of alignment. Has anyone else had a similar disaster with ultrasonic cleaning on delicate mechanisms?

2 comments

2 Comments

flores.tessa4d ago

yeah i had a similar thing with a nikon f2 shutter last year. pulled the whole assembly out and put it in a sonic cleaner with distilled water and a drop of dish soap. bad idea. the blades came out looking clean but the timing was garbage. ended up sending it to a guy in Oregon who fixes these old cameras. he told me never do that. he said ultrasonic cleaners are only for robust metal parts like lens helicoids or bodies. for shutter blades you use a tiny drop of naphtha on a q tip. that's it. worked for my next project a minolta srt101. slow and careful manual cleaning only.

sagesingh3d ago

nah sonic cleaners are fine if you know what youre doing lol