Hot take: that guy who told me to use lighter fluid to clean old shutters was completely wrong

I followed his advice on a 1950s Compur shutter last Tuesday and the lubricant just dissolved into a sticky mess that took me three hours with isopropyl to fix, so has anyone else run into bad tips from the old-timers on this forum?

2 comments

2 Comments

angela_kelly3d ago

Did you try naphtha like lighter fluid on the inner blades or just the outer casing? Thing is, the old timers swear by it because it worked on ancient balsam and shellac based lubricants, but post-1950s shutters used synthetic oils that turn to glue when you hit them with lighter fluid. I learned this the hard way on a Kodak Retina. Best move is to stick with Ronsonol for dissolving old gunk but never as a cleaner unless you plan to re-lube everything after. For a Compur you want to flush with isopropyl first, then apply a tiny drop of watch oil to the pivots, nothing else. How bad did the shutter sound after you cleaned it?

baker.simon1d ago

Wait wait wait, you actually used lighter fluid on a 1950s Compur? I'm sitting here reading this and my jaw just dropped. That's basically the worst thing you could have done short of hitting it with a hammer. The old timers get away with it because they're cleaning shutters from the 1920s that still have shellac holding everything together, but once you hit that post-war synthetic grease, poof, you've got yourself a glue factory. Yeah I've seen this exact disaster story about a dozen times on the forums, usually ends with someone buying a replacement shutter off eBay. Honestly you're lucky you only spent three hours with isopropyl, I've heard of people having to soak those things for days.