contact cleaner for pots...

[tommycataus]

Hey guys, it's got to that stage where I need to clean my scratchy wah pots (and possibly vintage guitar pots too). Embarrassingly, I've never used electrical contact cleaner before, although I know that a lubricant can do more harm than good. Will this one be ok?

https://m.masters.com.au/product/900014652/3-in-one-professional-contact-cleaner-290g

Cheers

[italianguy63]

Probably fine Tommy.

"CNC" makes a very good one...

MC

[tommycataus]

Thanks MC! Great to see you back on top by the way

[italianguy63]

Thanks Brother! 

Toughest ride of my life Tommy.  I have another 3 1/2 years till I am out of the woods.  Statistically, I have an 80% chance of relapse in the 1st 5 years.  That is a scary bad statistic.  My future X-wife (Big Ang), died yesterday of basically exactly what I had... she relapsed, and it killed her.  Sucks.  Thanks again for your friendship.  MC

[greaser_au]

Tommy,

be careful where that one goes, it may strip the lubricant from the shaft bushing/bearing  (don't ask me how I know...  ).

david

[Derringer]

Tommy,

be careful where that one goes, it may strip the lubricant from the shaft bushing/bearing  (don't ask me how I know...  ).

david

this is what I've read too.

You probably only need Fader Lube
http://store.caig.com/s.nl/sc.2/category.293/.f

but what I've also read, and this is what I just did to a 35 year old amp I updated, is to hit the pots with a contact cleaner (I used the DeOxit Red http://store.caig.com/s.nl/sc.2/category.188/.f which claims to be OK with plastics), twisted the pots this way and that, THEN chased the contact cleaner out of the pots with the faderlube.

Contact cleaner can eat plastic. One time in your pot is probably OK, but over time, the cleaner can eat the restive element and destroy the pot. The fader lube cleans and lubricates and does not hurt the plastic. Contact cleaner truly is designed for metal-to-metal connections like a 1/4" jack etc.

[DrAlx]

I use Servisol Super 10.  Can't recommend it enough.
Works great on pots and much cheaper when DeOxit when I last looked.
I've even fixed bad microswitches on PCBs with this stuff (without even opening up the switch).
I've also used it repeatedly on guitar pots over a period of years and never had it damage a pot.

Its' available in Oz too apparently.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/servisol-super-10-switch-cleaner-200-ml-/262212871246

EDIT. Or maybe not.  That posts from the UK.

[duck_arse]

I've used electrolube "EML" on pots, rightly or wrongly, for a great many years now.

element14 or RS.

[Mark Hammer]

There are essentially 3 things that need to be addressed inside pots:

• The state of the wiper, which is metal (usually brass).  This is what deoxidants are for.
• Build-up of exogenous and/or endogenous grime.  This can be dust that got in, but can also be teeny bits of resistive strip scraped off by years of wiper rotation.
• The quality of the contact between wiper and strip.  This includes not only how easily the wiper gets to move around, but anything that creates potential discontinuities between wiper and strip, or requires greater tension in the wiper to maintain contact with the strip.

"Crackles" can occur for any of those reasons, or combination of them.  Spraying with contact cleaner can help some, but not all, depending on what the source of the crackle is, and what the nature of the spray is.  Not every commercial product solves every possible source of discontinuities.

[blackieNYC]

The deoxit is a cleaner and lube, and needs no lube follow up.
Anything that is solely a cleaner will need a lube follow up - after the cleaner has fully evaporated.
Cleaners must be Plastic Safe - check the can. Even if the pot is not conductive plastic, imo.
  There used to be cleaners&lubricants in one, but apparently the binding agent between the two can no longer travel by plane. Or they've been declared evil.

The short answer is lubricant.
You don't need cleaner for our pots. The deoxit is fine - the cleaner is safe and not.  I use LPS-1. Lube only.  And exercise. The exercise is essential, and if there is still some of the original lube in the pot assembly, this might be all you need. Bang the wiper up against the ends of the pots travel. Pots tend to snowplow dirt off to the side, but sometimes it can fall back in-bounds.

Simul-post with Mark. A worn out pot is possible, and cannot be fixed. I consider this very rare, but we do use very cheap pots compared to most pro or high end gear. Can't speak to the expected life span of our standard pots.

[Mark Hammer]

I'm a big fan of this stuff - http://www.posthorn.com/Stab_2.html

A buddy who runs a busy studio, and does award-winning mastering and mixes, turned me on to it.  His studio operates in both the analog and digital domains, and those 6" faders need to be dead quiet.  This stuff is a big part of what accomplishes that (in addition to not smoking in the control room!).  Expensive, but truly amazing stuff.  I've brought all sorts of things back to life with it.  The one caveat is that, since it stays in viscous form permanently, you can't build up layers.  This means that, if a much-loved but well-used pot has been worn down enough from playing "White Room" thrice nightly for the past 20 years, the "wonder-stuff" will be limited in what it will be able to rejuvenate.  But, within limits, it's amazing.

[Kingmafw]

Contact cleaner an be very agressive. I use always tuner spray.
Like this: http://www.kontaktchemie.com/KOC/KOCproductdetail.csp?product=TUNER%20600

The result is OK. I use it already for years.

[lars-musik]

I've been told by our local amp guru that this is the only way:

http://www.thomann.de/de/kontakt_chemie_kontakt_701_vaseline.htm

Don't know if he's right, but for me it always worked fine!

[stallik]

Bought a can of this about 18 months ago
http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/maplin-contact-cleaner-200ml-n61an
When I got it home, there was no propellant in the can so I emptied the contents into a number of 10 ml dropper bottles. I still have at least 10 bottles left even after this time and find its much easier to apply the cleaner exactly where I want it without it getting everywhere. Despite the description, it does seem to leave a coating of lubricant.

I've tried squirting other aerosols into the same bottles and that works too. Place a bit of cotton wool over the opening if you do this as it goes everywhere otherwise

[wavley]

I'm a big fan of this stuff - http://www.posthorn.com/Stab_2.html

A buddy who runs a busy studio, and does award-winning mastering and mixes, turned me on to it.  His studio operates in both the analog and digital domains, and those 6" faders need to be dead quiet.  This stuff is a big part of what accomplishes that (in addition to not smoking in the control room!).  Expensive, but truly amazing stuff.  I've brought all sorts of things back to life with it.  The one caveat is that, since it stays in viscous form permanently, you can't build up layers.  This means that, if a much-loved but well-used pot has been worn down enough from playing "White Room" thrice nightly for the past 20 years, the "wonder-stuff" will be limited in what it will be able to rejuvenate.  But, within limits, it's amazing.

Now, I love, love, love stabilant 22.  It's fantastic on molex connectors, tube sockets, jacks... But I had always hear that you weren't supposed to use it in pots and faders, I just found an application note that you could use water diluted S22 for plastic element pots.  Yeah! another use for one of my favorite chemicals!

I can't stress how awesome this stuff is for tube sockets.  You know how you have to wiggle tubes all the time in a poorly maintained Ampeg with the PCB mounted sockets?  This stuff is awesome for that.

[Mark Hammer]

If I want to ignore a pot forever, I take it apart when I first get it, spread some Stabilant on the resistive strip, put it back together, and sleep soundly thereafter.  I've used it to bring glitchy TV remotes back to life, and a little poppy-seed-sized droplet on each of the pins in an IC socket happily restored a Small Stone for me.  Nintendo cartridges and flashdisk edge connectors can also wake up happy.

My own experience is that pots with wider diameters tend to have better wipers that scrape the resistive strip less.  As we migrate to tiny pots, I can see Stabilant as becoming more useful in restoring pots with overscraped resistive strips.  Although the migration to VERY small pots means inaccessible insides.

[vigilante397]

I'll probably get in trouble for this, but I use WD-40 

Was working on a 30 year-old amp, couldn't find exact replacements of the pots so I just cleaned them with WD-40, still working great several months later.

[blackieNYC]

Oh you're in trouble.  No Kirk Hammett thread for you for a month. WD40 indeed.

[Jdansti]

I'll probably get in trouble for this, but I use WD-40 

Was working on a 30 year-old amp, couldn't find exact replacements of the pots so I just cleaned them with WD-40, still working great several months later.

Just kidding. WD-40 is pretty light and evaporates over time. My concern is that before it evaporates, it has a tendency to be a dirt magnet.

[Jdansti]

I've still got an old can of this stuff.





I've been using this lately.