That old Rolleiflex shutter that locked up on me during a rush job

I was in my basement shop last Thursday trying to finish a Rolleiflex 3.5F before the owner picked it up Saturday. The shutter was cleaning up fine until I tested it and it just jammed at 1/500. Turns out a tiny sliver of old lubricant had dried and stuck the blade stack together. I had to disassemble the whole shutter block, clean each blade with lighter fluid, and reassemble it piece by piece. It runs smooth now but it ate up my whole evening. Anybody else run into old gummed-up lubricant on these German shutters?

2 comments

2 Comments

emma_burns963d ago

Oh come on, "ate up your whole evening" like that's a BAD thing. Taking apart a whole shutter block and cleaning it blade by blade is the BEST part of this work, not some chore.

phoenixb663d ago

Oh man, I totally get that. A buddy of mine who restores old cameras said the same thing after he spent hours rebuilding a sticky leaf shutter from a 1950s folder. He was just glowing about it, said it was like solving a tiny mechanical puzzle that actually worked in the end.