Tried heating a helicoid with a hair dryer before cleaning it.

I had a stuck focus ring on an old 50mm lens. Couldn't get it to budge. Read somewhere that heating it helps loosen old grease. Grabbed my wife's hair dryer, hit it for like 2 minutes on medium. Turned the ring and it moved but then it felt gritty. Ended up having to take the whole thing apart anyway. Learned that heat alone won't fix dried up lubricant. You still have to pull the helicoid out and replace the grease. Anyone else waste time on shortcuts?.

2 comments

2 Comments

barbara9675d ago

no way you went straight for the hair dryer without checking the actual grease first? i mean i get wanting to save time but that gritty feeling is just the old crusty lube turning into sand basically. you basically baked the old stuff into a paste. i did something similar with a cheap zoom lens once and learned the hard way that heat is just step one of like six. you gotta accept that helicoid cleanup is a full afternoon project not a 10 minute hack.

jason115d ago

Wait, are you saying I actually made it worse by skipping the cleanup?