hmm. I drank a half pint of gin one evening, forty years ago, back in college. I didn't fall over but I felt badly the next day.

THEREFORE one shouldn't use denatured alcohol on turntable styli (another vanishing technology) or shutters. hmmm.

I was just guessing about possible vulnurability of hard rubber to alcohol...don't know if that's really true. Has anybody actually had blades dissolve?

As we all know, most common Kodak development tanks for sheet film were made of hard rubber up until recent decades...they did resist absorption of all sorts of wild chemicals, some of which did contain or produce a little alcohol (in E4, for example).

Maybe somebody would be kind enough to pour denatured alcohol into a semi-operating junk shutter (a Graflex user's junk and another man's junk may be different with non-metalic blades...and report what happens? I'd do it, but all I have is that Compur and a Prontor, both of which (now) work very well and enjoy metal blades.

Well, we know the stuff dissolves the liver. But all seriousness aside, you can find Ronsonol at the tobacco counter in the drugstore or supermarket. I've also seen it at hardware stores. It comes in two sizes; the larger is 12 fl. oz. and costs under 3 bucks. It's in a tall yellow plastic container with blue lettering. The large size should provide lots of shutter-cleaning squirts, with plenty enough left over to fill your Zippo (but for godsakes not to light smokes, just whenever you need a quick clean flame around the workbench). It also dissolves adhesives, which comes in handy for a variety of uses.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Henry on 2004-11-08 10:27 ]</font>

Along with the '40 and '45 Annys, the Rolleiflex Automat I, the Contax kit, and the uniforms I have a black crinkle-finish Zippo. Rosenol works just fine to light those Luckies.....
Top

LSMFT---ugh!

Well, it seems I'm still carrying the torch, and had to get my $ 3. 39 cents in, on this !!
I'm with you Henry, never did like Luckies! but I'd walk a mile for a Camel! And I still use my Brass USMC Zippo!
I was reading all these posts, and I said to myself, "Now wait a minute, Let me think this one over, because in the past forty years or so, at one time or the other, I've been either a welder, machinist, or mechanic and all the while trying to learn photography. Anyway, it seems we've run into some gummy shutters for quite some time now, and all the O'l timers swore by the Ronsonol, method of cleaning these fine shutters. Other than other cleaning fluids that we know are super cleaners, and dry real quick. They may be great for gravy stains at the Dry Cleaners, but not for my Camera shutters or parts.
First off, we are trying to free up the spring steel blades and gummy stuff, that was put there for a reason in the first place, and it just took forty to sixty years to get gummy and stick. Now if we use these super cleaners, we are cleaning way too much! Period!
The spring steel blades in the best shutters, were heat treated and quenched in oil, yes! they were wiped clean, and maybe even soaked in a solvent before being assembled. But the quenching in oil, left something behind, in the metal as the oil burned in and cooled at the same time, in the form of grahite. And when the shutters were assembled, some form of oil was used inside on the working and parts. And all my years in the metal trades, you never left bare metal around very long (and I mean hours!) before it started rusting, and any metal parts which were in constant contact with each other, had better have some type of oil on it. You would not believe how fast the dry shutter blades, will wear away at each other, leaving a fine dust of steel inside and coating the lenses. The use of Ronsonol, to loosen gummy "oil" , should do just that, and maybe leave a residue of it's own oil (however minute) after it dries, and has done it's job, and will take another forty to sixty years to gum up again.
But this time leave a note, with each lens, telling your grandson's sons, just how and what you used to clean the tools of your trade, and why!

So here we are today with lubricants, that our grandpa's daddy would of loved to have. But in it's time Whale oil, did just fine, even today some still use it. Where we use Teflon, Silacone, Dura-Lube, Slick 50, WD-40, all to keep metal from wearing and rusting, and getting gummy.

That's my $ 3.39 cents of shadetree machanic wisdom, and the cost of a bottle of Ronsonol !!
Ok! someone take this torch, it's getting short!! While I light up a cig, with my Zippo!





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Only you and a camera, can capture an image, a moment of time, in a fraction of time! Why wait?
"Oh babe!, you're a hefty one!, spread your legs, raise up a little, turn to the left, and now right! You're the most beautiful.... tripod I use!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Tiltall ED on 2005-03-02 06:59 ]</font>