Here camera repair expert Ryan Jones restores the dial markings on a Leica M3. To fill in the impossibly thin engravings, Jones employs a clever technique: He applies Testors enamel with a dental pick, then wipes the excess away using special swabs.
The dental pick wasn’t the first solution to occur to Jones, but is the lasting one. “I’ve used syringes and tiny needles in the past, after a few years of doing this I find myself throwing away clogged syringes and losing the needles,” he writes. “So using this dental pick is my go-to since it’s always on my bench and needs no maintenance!”
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Lastly, about those swabs: “These q-tips are for gun cleaning and have a blunt and pointy end,” Jones writes. I was unfamiliar with these, and looked them up:
Pretty nifty, and I can definitely use these for sewing machine repairs. They’re $10 for 500.
Source: core77