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Fun fact: You can microwave the Minolta 50/1.4
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 09, 2023 12:29 pm    Post subject: Fun fact: You can microwave the Minolta 50/1.4 Reply with quote

Purchased some lenses from Japan to polish my repair skills, and while cleaning fungus from the front group of Minolta 50/1.4, in spite of being extremely careful, I managed to let the hydrogen peroxide seep inside. Not a large quantity but enough to render the lens useless. The entire front group is one single piece and the only option to disassemble it is to cut through the plastic and that's something that I can't do at the moment.



First thing I thought about was the isopropyl alcohol but it didn't work as planned (although it removed part of the moisture near the edge), so I decided to take extreme measures:
There are no metal parts - only plastic and glass, so let's microwave it. 300 W, 1 minute, 6 or 7 repetitions. Done. The small fungus growths are inside and now they're definitely dead due to the hydrogen peroxide and microwave combo:



First test picture after reassembling the lens optics back together:



Test shots:







I'm thinking about purchasing a resin printer later this year, so if I manage to print the plastic housing then I'll cut the original one and clean each and every glass piece.

BTW, if you somehow manage to flood the lens to this degree, then be extremely careful: the amount of water inside can make it explode when suddenly turned into steam (it's couple of seconds for the microwave). I suggest you to heat it slowly on a radiator or something for couple of days.


PostPosted: Sat Apr 22, 2023 8:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Smart reaction to a disaster. Hope all these nice flowers did not suffer from your mixture.