spray cleaner?

[mike_mccue]

I want to place a small order with Mouser. Can anyone recomend a spray cleaner that will be good for use on tube sockets, input jacks, potentiometers etc.

thanks,
mike

[Amp Kat]

Mouser really doesn't have a good selection of cleaners so I'd go to MCM for that and get some Blue shower for pots and maybe some Pro Gold G5. I'm getting to where I don't use anything in pots but fast dring contact cleaner like the Blow Off DPC no residue. The reason is that these guys out here don't clean their amps at all with the exception of a few and dirt cakes up on the shafts and turns into grime. Usually if you can get some cleaner into the pot thru the hole and then spray right where the shaft meats the outer part you can break it loose but sometimes you either have to go inside it or just replace it. I'm getting away from Silicon lubricants as they colect more dirt than they clean. Just my 002

[mike_mccue]

Thanks,
Your advice and insights seem well considered.

best regards,
mike

[Mr. Droopy-Drawers]

You have to use a cleaner that emphatically states it leaves no residue on tube sockets, but in potentiometers you want a silicone lubricate. As I learned in Health class, a little lubrication helps moving parts move smoothly . To make that poor potentiometer move to and fro across the resistance strip without some lubrication isn't right. If you get dust attracted to the control, then you are just using too much spray. Try it on two different amplifiers and decide for yourself. But now you know where to use what spray.

[Amp Kat]

If you get dust attracted to the control, then you are just using too much spray. .

Come down here for a week or so and see what I see and then tell me that. You'll be changing your story real fast. I get a lot of amps from New Orleans and surrounding areas and these clubs are filthy. If your amp has a fan it's worst and lubricant or no lubricant dirt is getting in your pots and that mixed with ANY lubricant turns into grime and grime is noise. I do agree that it does help moving part's and smooths the pot out but this ain't the place

[Mr. Droopy-Drawers]

Just a thought, and I get them so rarely that I had to share this one, but maybe the spray you are using also comes with some free static? There has to be a reason you are having bad luck with lubricating spray. Just as one man's escargot is another man's garden pest, I have used lubricating sprays for almost thirty years and haven't had your troubles (knock wood).
Hey, I am way too old to get into a spitting contest with anyone, but humor me and think about this for a long time before you hange me. Going back 20+ years when I was in the TV repair business, you always used a scrubbing cleaner and a lubricating spray on the old turret tuners. Now, people that were heavy smokers always had crud built up inside their set as that nicotine seemed to act like a magnet for dust and dirt. But the non-smokers always seemed to have a clean set. And it didn't matter where they lived. If you are using WD-40 or something similar, I would expect dust and dirt to build up quickly. A thin, light film should be more than OK.
I have no idea what living in NO means to this. I would expect people living in Boston or New England to get a lot of corrosion in their electronic gear. Is this a problem in NO as well? That's different from static attracting a lot of dirt and dust into your amplifier, but I don't live there, so feel free to correct me.

[dai h.]

To make that poor potentiometer move to and fro across the resistance strip without some lubrication isn't right.

as far as I can tell, it's the shaft and part around it (much more than the contact and resistive strip) that needs lubricant, which is "damping grease" and it's this stuff if completely dissolved (by things people spray such as alcohol, naphtha, etc.) that freezes up a potentiometer. The blue Deoxit (IIRC "Faderlube"?) spray seems to work pretty good (you may have to wait for the carrier--which is naphtha--to evaporate if you use the 5% solution though).

[Amp Kat]

Another reason for the argument (no offense btw tstl) is it never happens to pots that are enclosed like PEC. The quality does have something to do with it also and yes theres lots of corrosion from the air in N.O.and no these are not Katrina amps. I have been to Boston for awhile and I must say the same may be true as I've been in some pretty dirty places but not quite as bad as N.O. Sometimes no matter what you spray you just have to take the cover off and clean the inards which is where you find the gel and the beer. Either way if you like using the silicon go for it but I'm staying clear for now

[Dave Curtis, dB AudioTech]

You have to use a cleaner that emphatically states it leaves no residue on tube sockets, but in potentiometers you want a silicone lubricate. As I learned in Health class, a little lubrication helps moving parts move smoothly . To make that poor potentiometer move to and fro across the resistance strip without some lubrication isn't right. If you get dust attracted to the control, then you are just using too much spray. Try it on two different amplifiers and decide for yourself. But now you know where to use what spray.

I've been using a ProGold GxL pen on tube pins/sockets for years, and it's the only stuff I know of that's rated for the heat; it doesn't turn to varnish.

A quick shot of D5 into the pot, work it back and forth 5 or 10 times followed with a shot of MCL.

BTW, Radio Shack carries Caig products now.

-DC

[benindavis]

Just a quick thought here

What about some compressed air to blow out the dirt and then a lubricant? I have had great luck on my Strat pots by doing that and yeah WD40 is great for a bicycle chain or to clean the water out of the distributor cap on your 65 Ford pickup but I certainly would shy away from using it electronic equipment unless it was a last resort!
Ben

[Dave Curtis, dB AudioTech]

What about some compressed air to blow out the dirt and then a lubricant? I have had great luck on my Strat pots by doing that and yeah WD40 is great for a bicycle chain or to clean the water out of the distributor cap on your 65 Ford pickup but I certainly would shy away from using it electronic equipment unless it was a last resort!
Ben

Not even as a last resort. WD40 themselves advise against using it as an electronics cleaner.

Compressed air has a tendancy to blow dirt further in, and may blow some contaminants in as well; I'd rather vac it out.

-DC

[clintronics]

I asked the guys at Soundcraft what they use and they recomended "Lube Job Electronics Lubricant". So I bought a case of it and it seems to work well.