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?

3 comments

3 Comments

hugotaylor2d 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?

wright.leo2d 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.

lee182d 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.