Spent $80 on a ultrasonic cleaner that ruined my shutter blades

I bought this cheap ultrasonic cleaner off Amazon for about $80 to clean some old shutter blades from a Pentax Spotmatic. Ran it for 3 minutes like the manual said, and the blades came out all warped and bent out of shape. I guess the frequency was too high or something, but now I'm out the money and have to hunt down a new shutter assembly. Has anyone else had bad luck with those inexpensive cleaners?

2 comments

2 Comments

olivere305d ago

3 minutes in an $80 cleaner on shutter blades is way too aggressive dude. Those units at that price point usually have fixed frequencies around 40kHz which is fine but you probably ran it too long with strong cavitation. I have a cheap one from Harbor Freight that works great on brass gears and lens elements, but I always start with 30 second cycles and check progress. Shutter blades are super thin and delicate, the vibration can literally flex them back and forth until they fatigue and bend. Try warming the solution first next time and only do quick pulses, or better yet spend the $200 on a quality ultrasonic with adjustable settings if you plan to do more of this kind of work.

leo_campbell5d ago

Wait, how do you even warm the solution without messing something up? I tried warm water once and my cheap ultrasonic just shot steam everywhere and made a weird noise. That Harbor Freight unit you mentioned is tempting but I'm scared to use anything on shutter blades now after seeing posts like this.