DIY RCA Jack Cleaner

sol7

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
Was trying to clean some nasty crusty RCA jacks today had to find a better way. Figured it would be just as quick or quicker to spin something on the lathe than work a polishing cloth around the jacks. Came up with this:

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Put some polish on a rag, put it over the jack, and slip the tool over and twist away. Aluminum and polish = black fingers, hence the electrical tape wrapped around the tool handle. It's not perfect, but it got the job done. Used a pipe cleaner with polish to clean the inner contact surface. Flushed it all with contact cleaner and then used DeOxit Gold.
 
I am bewildered why there isn't an off the shelf tool to do this...I have looked before , surely they would sell well
 
Q-tips, a toothbrush some tooth picks and CRC cleaner worked well for me, had all of it just lying around, very little time/effort/money
 
I have seen different cleaning tools over the years. It was quicker to make one than wait for mail order.

I would limit the amount of polish you use for cleaning or you will eventually wear through the plating. You can see some of the brass showing in the ones I did. The plating was badly corroded to begin with. If just freshening up the connections, DeOxit should be fine.
 
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Wow those were corroded... Your pics are good, too.
I posted up recently using a synthetic wine cork that just happened to fit between most vintage patterns. Just drilled a near sized hole in the end using a clean or lint free rag as mentioned. Up until I experimented polishing I didn't realize how difficult it was to take a pic of a shined component/ reflections etc.
 
Goes easy on the polish or you could eventually wear through the plating. You don't want an aggressive polish. Maybe use Deoxit and that tool first. Then move to polish if that doesn't do the trick.
 
I use a deep 1/4 drive socket in a cordless drill. A little polish on a piece of old sock stuffed in the socket. Put it over the jack and hit the drill a couple of times. For the inside I use the special "Q" tips that have been mentioned here. They're narrow and made with some dense foam.
 
The synthetic wine cork works good. you just need drill bit and holder like I bored my second try by hand with a glove... just a few twists. scrap cotton and some goo gone and fine polish like plastix, even tooth past will act as a good compound, old auto compound and a shot of deoxit 5. could make a tool out of a wooden dowel by hand, too. Core pos. as noted cleaning with q-tips and or pipe cleaners.

Found just a few spins per really got results and these were pretty aged but not corroded too much... plenty of plating left.
 
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Usually when they're that corroded, the plating, if plated, is usually already gone hence the corrosion.

Good cleanup!
 
Usually when they're that corroded, the plating, if plated, is usually already gone hence the corrosion.

Good cleanup!

True. If they are as corroded as the ones I did, there's no need to worry about the plating (what's left of it). If you are just touching up some dusty or tarnished connectors, I would go easy on any harsh polishes.
 
Goes easy on the polish or you could eventually wear through the plating. You don't want an aggressive polish. Maybe use Deoxit and that tool first. Then move to polish if that doesn't do the trick.

That's exactly what I did... used Deoxit with the tool. It's likely that to get good connectivity, the RCA connect does not have to be "bright and shiny." It's the removal of any compromised metal due to oxidation. Just sayin' so that we don't give the impression that the connectors have to be bright and shiny to work well.

Cheers.
 
I use the rubber off of a Pilot Gel pen and a bit of rag and toothpaste to polish the ones I've done. The rubber doesn't give too much pressure and the toothpaste isn't abrasive enough to go crazy and eat up all of the plating. I just use my fingers to turn it back and forth a few times until it's shiny. I used Simichrome polish on a junky unit to test this method but even with a short amount of polishing the gold plating was gone in nearly no time.
 
Wow those were corroded... Your pics are good, too.
I posted up recently using a synthetic wine cork that just happened to fit between most vintage patterns. Just drilled a near sized hole in the end using a clean or lint free rag as mentioned. Up until I experimented polishing I didn't realize how difficult it was to take a pic of a shined component/ reflections etc.
This is a good enough idea. I'm gonna try it.
I do wish the Signet tool was available. Seems like some company somewhere would pick up the cue and make a million or so of them for quick sale.
 
2016 post? LOL.. was a tool for it as noted above why I made my own. really old plating probably won't come up super shine but works Never chased if any audio difference.. just being fussy but they got clean.
 
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