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Rant: I thought solvent baths were overkill for shutter springs
I always figured dunking shutter springs in solvent was just extra work for no real gain. My hobby is restoring old rangefinders, and I would just wipe them down with a cloth. But last week, I was working on a vintage rangefinder from the 50s, and the shutter was dragging no matter how much I cleaned it by hand. After three tries, I gave in and tried a quick dip in lighter fluid. The difference was huge, with all that built-up gunk coming right off and the springs snapping back like new. Now I see that for decades-old grease, a bath really gets into the tight coils. It saved me hours of fiddling and got the camera working perfectly. I guess sometimes the old-school methods are worth the hassle after all.
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blaked796mo ago
I used to skip the solvent bath too, but it really does work on the old, hardened grease. Changed my mind after seeing the results.
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avery_torres496mo ago
Yeah it really does CHANGE your mind once you see it work. That old grease just MELTS away. Hard to argue with results.
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parker2526mo ago
What finally convinced me? My grill grates were so crusted with grease they looked black. I used to scrub them raw every season and it took forever. Then I tried soaking them in a basic degreaser overnight. Woke up to grease just pooling at the bottom and the grates wiped clean. That one mess changed my whole approach to cleaning. Now I always let the cleaner sit first.
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