Not sure where the real best place for this is, but does anyone else in the service business use Deoxit? We are about to have to stop getting it as it is about 24.00 a can now. Nothing else seems to clean up really oxidized and tarnished contacts the way Deoxit does but it seems like every 2 months or so the price keeps going up or it keeps getting reformulated. Anyone use any other product for removing corrosion/oxidation that works good?

$9.00 a can at Parts Express.

wd-40 works well for me.
bill

wd-40 works well for me.
bill

Are you SERIOUS???
or just flaming???

MCM electronics has it on sale. A 142 g can of D5 is $7.99 (200-040). Use source code 5A110.

Thanks for your replies. We prefer to use the nonflammable DN5 especially on contacts on jukeboxes, arcade machines etc where there is sparking and arcing. We may just have to use the flammable D5 for deoxidizing and then clean off the residue with a nonflammable contact cleaner.

MCM also had DN5 for $16.95 for 163g.

wd-40 works well for me.
bill
-->Note to self: Don't buy used gear from bills<--

Thanks for your replies. We prefer to use the nonflammable DN5 especially on contacts on jukeboxes, arcade machines etc where there is sparking and arcing. We may just have to use the flammable D5 for deoxidizing and then clean off the residue with a nonflammable contact cleaner.

I suspect that it is only flammable for a few moents after spraying.... the solvent seems to evaporate fairly rapidly, and AFAIK the DeOxit that remains behind is not flammable.

-->Note to self: Don't buy used gear from bills<--

enlighten me as to why you think this is such a bad idea.
i have used wd-40 to clean scratchy pots and switches for years with great results.
and no this is not a flame.
bill

Just a note on WD40... Many years ago I worked at a radio station and the oldtimer really did use WD40 to keep the pots quiet on the board it was the only thing he said would last. He had everything in first rate shape so he knew something. I have used it myself when I had nothing else. Never hurt anything but it is not my first choice.

Just a note on WD40... Many years ago I worked at a radio station and the oldtimer really did use WD40 to keep the pots quiet on the board it was the only thing he said would last. He had everything in first rate shape so he knew something. I have used it myself when I had nothing else. Never hurt anything but it is not my first choice.

as i said works good for me.
bill

-->Note to self: Don't buy used gear from bills<--
i don't sell any of my stuff any way so what.
could be a flame naaw not a flame .
bills

Ok, I will try to be short... WD 40 is a mix of many solvents, designed to dissolve and flush out any old grease, gunk etc regardless of it's parentage.
It leaves behind some oil...

Don't get me wrong, I use it on many metallic mechanical parts, where there are no plastics, rubber or petrochemical based permanent materials involved.
I even use it for a preliminary cleaner where other stuff won't touch the gunk, but then I use another cleaner to get it out of there (fast) so that it won't contaminate or affect the properties of the CORRECT lubricant for the application.

Potentiometers are usually a resistive material "painted" on the surface of an insulating material. This involves binders ("glue"?) that were usually petrochemically based. Thus the risk of removing the resistive material, especially on older UNREPLACABLE components is unacceptably high to most of us.

The only exception would be wirewound pots wound on ceramic forms with NO OTHER materials involves, and I would still worry about the flammability of the oil left behind..

Basically If I can spray it on a match and it puts out the match, this is what I prefer to use to clean electronic equipment. When I HAVE to I use Isopoperol alcohol outside away from any possible ignition source. (fans in a room window just won't cut it for me...)

A little too careful?? mayby... but at age 22 I learned a healthy resprect for fire, and it also taught me the meaning of futility....

As to my bonafides... I am an E. Engineer by training, and I love getting down and dirty with technician type work for the last 37+ years...
(and I'm pretty darn good at it, in all im-modesty).

Hey, I use WD-40 for all sorts of things, but not for electronics. It seems that WD-40 has become the duct tape of lubricants, and it does do a wide variety of things quite well. While DeOxit is not cheap, it does work better (and more safely) than anything else I've tried.

We do not use WD-40 for anything...it is not really a lubricant but more of a solvent, like kerosene or paint thinner with a little bit of oil-like characteristics. Have found that real penetrating oil (S'Ok!, Kroil, etc) works much better where a spray lubricant or stuck bolt loosener is needed (not for potentiometers, etc.)

There is a product called Cailube MCL that can be used to safely lubricate pots after cleaning with a cleaner like Deoxit.

In a radio club newsletter a few years ago it was reported that someone fixed an old radio for a customer & after they had it back it caught fire. WD-40 turned out to be the culprit. I seem to recall that some phenolic was soaked with it causing a short.

I had used it prior to reading that but no longer do for those purposes. I do keep a can on the bench, for removing adhesive or some lubricating jobs.

GOO GONE is the best for removing tape/adhesive residue. It is pretty non-aggresive and is based on citrus oils.

I think Goo Gone is a excellent product, when nothing else will do, Goo Gone will take the stickest crap right off just about surface.

Naptha / zippo lighter fluid works very well for removing sticky glue. I've used it for years and never had any problems. I wouldn't use WD-40 because it leaves an oily residue. Naptha evaporates completely. I've even used it on paper (like when someone puts a price tag on a book cover).

I used to used WD-40 for removing price tags from used CDs, but I got some Goo Gone last year and prefer it -- Foe

i don't sell any of my stuff any way so what.
could be a flame naaw not a flame .
bills
WD-40 dissolves the carbon tracks of many styles of potentiometers, rendering them useless, of course. Perhaps you've been lucky thus far, but a professional knows better and would never consider using the stuff for the aforementioned reason and many others that I see no point in covering.

Is there actually some proof that WD40 can cause pot damage? When I was a kid, I used it all the time to fix noisy pots in TV's. Years later, I still have alot of these sets, not a problem. Ive done it to antique radios as well. The hundreds of pots if shot with it, they are still dead quite and functioning well 15+ years later.

I currently use cyclo electronic contact cleaner which works well. I havnt used WD40 in years as I know there are special lubricant cleaners now. I always liked doing things right the first time, and make sure everything that gets taken apart goes back together the exact same way. When you are a kid, you really dont know better but to experiment and see what works. But I must say, WD40 did the trick everytime and I havnt had to clean contacts in any of the sets Ive had for so many years.

But I did use WD-40 recently to help loosen an oxygen sensor that was rusted into my car's exhaust manifold. Then used anti-sieze compound of the threads of the new one. There is a proper chemical for each application.

WD-40 is good for cleaning tools, too, but not my Sansuis! :yikes:

drh4683, those old pots could have been wirewound, rather than carbon track. Also, some styles of carbon track don't seem to suffer any ill effects from WD-40, other than getting gummy after a bit and needing cleaning with something designed for this purpose.

Bottom line...you don't reach for a hammer when what the job calls for is a screwdriver. There's always a proper tool for the job, and for pots and switches it isn't WD-40. As far as what's the right tool, there are a few good products out there...I just use DeOxit and CaiLube.

WD-40 dissolves the carbon tracks of many styles of potentiometers, rendering them useless, of course. Perhaps you've been lucky thus far, but a professional knows better and would never consider using the stuff for the aforementioned reason and many others that I see no point in covering.

so far i have not run into this problem
most of the stuff i work on is 50 or more years old maybe the newer stuff can't handle it.
i will keep this in mind when i work on new stuff.
thanks for all the input we can all learn something new.
bill

http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/1339/pict08063so.th.jpg (http://img372.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pict08063so.jpg)

We used to buy this stuff called tun-o-power buy the case to clean the contacts on tuners. As I remember it used to leave a messy green film all over the tuner but it worked. I used to buy trichloroethane in gallon cans to clean tuners, we used to dip the whole tuner in it. I no longer use WD-40 on pots myself but I did 25 years ago. I never remember having a pot go bad because I used it.
There were not as many choices back then as today. Any body that used so much to cause a fire used too much anyway.

I have never used WD40 on anything electronic.Have used it to free up frozen mechanical things but got it all off and used the proper grease afterward.A couple of years ago it did prove quite handy in getting the old grease out of a completely frozen record gripper mech in a Rockola jukebox.The grease was really hard and stubborn.The WD40 got it to move without using heat or force.The WD40 got it all off including the stubborn brown residue from it.Afterward I had it completely disassembled and removed all the WD40 with brake cleaner and reassembled with new grease.

I have never used WD40 on anything electronic.Have used it to free up frozen mechanical things but got it all off and used the proper grease afterward.A couple of years ago it did prove quite handy in getting the old grease out of a completely frozen record gripper mech in a Rockola jukebox.The grease was really hard and stubborn.The WD40 got it to move without using heat or force.The WD40 got it all off including the stubborn brown residue from it.Afterward I had it completely disassembled and removed all the WD40 with brake cleaner and reassembled with new grease.

i have found it to be a great solvent (ain't worth a dam for a lube)
i to have been using wd-40 for about 30 years.
so far i haven't broke any thing with it yet.
bill

WD-40 dissolves the carbon tracks of many styles of potentiometers, rendering them useless, of course. Perhaps you've been lucky thus far, but a professional knows better and would never consider using the stuff for the aforementioned reason and many others that I see no point in covering.

has this happened to you?
what brand of pot did it dissolve?

thanks
bill

Honestly, I paid little attention. Bad pot, take it out and replace it.

Alps makes most pots for Jap gear, and that's what I work on most. But Alps, like the other companies, makes dozens of different styles.

There was a post earlier about Goof Off...I don't think the chemical composition is similar to Goo Gone. If I remember correctly Goof Off has toluene or xylene so it can be potentially damaging to paint or plastics. Have not used it personally but have heard reports of it dissolving stuff so I would be real cautious with it. Goo Gone, based on citrus oils is safe for plastic as far as I can tell.

Honestly, I paid little attention. Bad pot, take it out and replace it.

Alps makes most pots for Jap gear, and that's what I work on most. But Alps, like the other companies, makes dozens of different styles.

i have been working on u.s. made stuff, could be the difference.
although alps is good stuff.
bills

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/9773/pict07837qu.th.jpg (http://img299.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pict07837qu.jpg)

I remember several years ago when they banned freon in contact cleaner and such we got some contact cleaner from Chemtronics and the plastic shafts of some of the controls in a Panasonic tv from the late 70s broke right off where they bonded inside the contols.Wonder if sprays from other companies caused damage like this when everybody had to change their formulation.I've never tried DEOXit.We get contact cleaner from a company called Blow Off and it seems to be ok.It's alcohol based spray and you want it to be pretty dry on any contacts that might spark.I once had some on a paper towell and it just barely brushed my iron when I laid the paper towell on the bench and "poof".Knocked it in the floor and stomped it out.But it's never damaged a control.Have to follow with the lubricant spray from them usually to keep the control smoothly operating.

I used to love Blue Shower TF cleaner. It was safe on plastics and didn't leave any residue, so you had the choice of what to lubricate it with. It was non-conductive and non-flammable also. I never found an ozone friendly substitute that was plastic safe. I wish I had stocked up when it was cheap and available.

Any thoughts on the Ratshack cleaners? For example Nexxtech contact and head cleaner. It contains Isopropanol, isobutane and propane...hmm I wonder if it's flammable?