Advice needed on how to clean Leica M6 shutter

I heard alcohol can damage rubber. Maybe you can seal the camera in a box with a bunch of silica to dry it out and kill the mold. Camera repair guy is the only piece of solid advice.

Jon, certainly try to clean it with delicate care.

Alcohol should be alright, be careful with the q-tip as it may leave serious lint that could prove to be a pain. I have had similar issues when I was Laos, try to contact Don Goldberg before you do anything.

Should I send you a few bags of silica gel packs, I have hundreds?

Hope all is well out there,

-M

Maybe a little bleach with a Q tip and steady hands? But other than looking ugly can a little mold hold hurt much?

Good point about the Q tip lint. I can use an old silk hanky instead. Now as to “rubber” - is the shutter then a kind of rubberized cloth? I mean it looks like cloth to me, not rubber, but what do i know? I am not even sure that I need take any steps at all – maybe just leave the thing open for a short while with some silica gel in a warm dry room. But we dont have any warm dry rooms!! ha!
I am afraid that a camera repair guy is out of the question - this will have to be a do-it-yourselfer, unless I send it to Leica and I am prepared to shell out beaucoup bucks and wait several months. Nope, gotta attack this myself.
Who is Don Goldberg?
And thanks guys, I do appreciate it.

I was checking online and there are many warnings about using alcohol and rubber. I think the M has a form of rubberize cloth. I don’t think you need a room; just keep the camera open in a cooler or box with the silica .

As long as it’s working I wouldn’t worry too much about ti. Leaving it open with silca should help but it seems like you are going to have mold. If you have the QTip semi wet with a mild bleach solution that should kill any lint but if it still shoots don’t worry too much about it…

I’d be wary of using bleach… It may stain the silk. Bleach tends to weaken fabric as well. Maybe try a drop mixed with lots of water. We used a capful to a quart of water to clean the kitchens – when I worked in the kitchens – so a little goes a long way. And test it on a scrap piece of fabric.
My two pennies.

I second J-F, just a tiny amount. But I also think just drying it out will help too…

Don Goldberg is DAG the de facto goto man on all things Leica. Exceptionally knowledgeable and kind.

DAG Camera Parts Contact Information

Telephone 608-835-3342
FAX 608-835-3342
Postal Address 2128 Vintage Drive Oregon WI 53575 USA
Customer Service dagcam@chorus.net

There are several others out there but for my 6 DAG is the only option.

good luck,

-M

Jon, I contacted DAG hope to hear back by the end of the evening, will let you know

Jon,

I think that it would be a good idea to get a professional opinion and have it repaired as Matt has recommended. After your M6 is restored to its good health, may I suggest that you might get yourself a plastic airtight box with desiccant to store your photo equipment.

Hakuba USA appears to sell such a box, but I don’t know which online store you need to go to get one.

Here is a PDF, of the Hakuba dry box. If you google with “Hakuba Drybox,” this comes to the top. You will also find some discussions on the use of dry box including my old post on LS. I have such a box in Japan to store my father’s OM-2 and lenses, which I use when in Tokyo. I looked for a Hakubo box on B&H, but they don’t seem to sell one. It is easy to get one in Tokyo and it is not terribly expensive. Perhaps you could e-mail Hakuba USA for help.

Mold is carried by dust and thrives in dark and humid environments. So make sure you dust off your cameras frequently.

Peli Case sells air & watertight cases AND sells reusable silicagel. When saturated with humidity put the little silicagel containers in the oven for a few hours until it has the right colour again. Then put the silicagel in the Pelicase and it should suck up the humidity again.

Another way to avoid mold is to put your cameras in a glass cupboard so that light can come in but not the dust, and to have a lightbulb burning inside 24/24. The heat by the bulb will dry the air inside, avoid darkness (and allow the thieves to spot your gear more easily on a nocturnal visit)...

I would not touch or try to clean the curtain of your Leica as long as it is light tight.

After all mold are some sort of mushrooms: healthy stuff. You can make penicillin with it. But it’s no reason to start sniffing your curtain…

Cheers

John

DAG Response:
——-
Matt,

Hydrogen Peroxide is very good for this, also denatured alcohol is good for removing mold,

regards,

Don
DAG
——-

Cheers,
-M

Wow. thanks a lot everyone. LS is a great resource and I am indebted to you all. I never had any problems before the interminable rainy season this year, so I never resorted to silica, etc, but That’s it, from now on I am going to rig up a box as suggested. Meantime, I very carefully dabbed at the curtain with a silk hanky and my current diagnosis is that what I am seeing there is not mold but perhaps the dried up stain left by what may have been mold or a combo of chemistry exhaled off the negative (there was an old roll of film left in there that I had forgotten about) and humidity and whatever. I think i will try to dab a little bit of hydro peroxide or alcohol just to see if it makes any difference at all on any one tiny spot, but if not I am just going to leave it alone and run a roll through it to see if there is any kind of contamination I need worry about.

Again, thanks folks, I really appreciate it.

To nip the mold in the bud, put a few drops of Thieves cleaner on any old stupid rag and stick it, with the camera, into a plastic bag for a few days. Nothing beats mold better. Every darkroom should have a bottle of it. Because it is a concentrate, a bottle’s worth will last for years. On hot, humid days, as a preventive measure, helps to regularly spray a dilution of Thieves around the negative, slide and print storage areas, as well as book cases.

Jon,

My Olympus OM cameras except for the OM-2000 all have cloth curtains. Because of your post, I had another look at my OM-4Ti shutter curtains. It was because I had an intermittent problem of a curved line through the frame in a number of rolls of films I shot. Previously I had looked at the shutter curtains themselves, but when I saw your post I opened the shutters at the Bulb position to see if there is anything. There was a faint white string-like thing in the lightpath, which I promptly removed. I had left this OM-4Ti at my favorite lodging in Austria for one year, where I have stayed whenever I went to that location for the past ten years. The house can be damp, so I had asked the lady to please keep it in the driest possible spot in the house, but….

Glad you found the answer and now we all know how th clean our M6s!