Found a simple fix for stuck shutter blades on old Copal shutters
I was working on a Mamiya 645 from the 80s last week with a stuck shutter. The blades were just sitting there frozen. I tried cleaning them with lighter fluid like everyone says, but they still wouldn't move. Then a guy at the local camera club told me to try a tiny drop of sewing machine oil on the pivot points, not the blades themselves. He said the real problem is the dried up old grease in the pivot holes, not the blades being dirty. I used a toothpick to apply it, let it sit for 10 minutes, and worked the shutter open and closed by hand. It freed right up and now it fires at every speed from 1 second to 1/500. Has anyone else had luck with this trick or do you stick to dry cleaning only?