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Anyone ever tried this contact cleaner??

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Post a link to the MSDS (Safety sheet) for us to look over. Probably just a cleaner without any deoxit stuff in it but many use these types of cleaners. Need to see it is plastic safe and some other info.
 
Any decent electricians supply house sells large, cheap cans of contact cleaner as do most auto parts places. most (all?) are made for metal on metal contact only and not recommended for fine (expensive) audio equipment. If looking to clean pots for sure use something designed for that and for plastics use proper fader lube type of things. The $20 you may save on not buying deoxit will be worthless if you do any real damage. This is also why when shopping on CL and the ad says "cleaned all switches" I ask "with what?".
 
Seems to me that most of the contact cleaners I've seen and read the ingredients for have as their main active ingredient "hexanes." Hexanes are 6-carbon hydrocarbons and are powerful solvents that evaporate readily.

So if you look at the ingredients and the first item is "hexanes," then yes you can probably use it.
 
I found an insulin syringe invaluable when used with any contact cleaner to clean noisy pots/controls.

Many controls have weep holes that are too small for tube spray nozzles but not too small for the needle of a syringe.

I usually spray a small amount of the contact cleaner into it's cap and then fill the syringe. I work the control back and forth while injecting the cleaner into the weep hole. Works like a charm.

1ml-insulin-syringe-pin.jpg
 
The Fuxtor said:
http://homehardware.ca/en/rec/index..._EN/R-I8618888?Ntt=Electrical+contact+cleaner

From a Canadian hardware store, seems considerably cheaper??
Click to expand...

I've been using a similar one labled Moto-Master from Crappy tire and it seems to work alright for me. Finding Deoxit in this part of this country is next to impossible. The crappy tire stuff evaporates a lot faster than deoxit (which I like). Deoxit tends to leave a residue on circuit boards that takes quite a bit of compressed air to get rid of if you happen to get it on there, and I have in the past. ;)
 
Be careful with those contact cleaners. Most of them don´t play well with plastic internal switch components.
55Redneck said:
Deoxit tends to leave a residue on circuit boards
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Its not meant to be used on circuit boards.
 
Most any hardware/home improvement store sells similar stuff. It's meant for cleaning electric motors.

De-oxit works best of the stuff available today. TV tuner cleaner that the Shack used to sell, and I'm sure is available somewhere, was cheaper and OK also but never lasted as long as DO.
 
I like the syringe trick!!
Poultrygeist said:
I found an insulin syringe invaluable when used with any contact cleaner to clean noisy pots/controls.

Many controls have weep holes that are too small for tube spray nozzles but not too small for the needle of a syringe.

I usually spray a small amount of the contact cleaner into it's cap and then fill the syringe. I work the control back and forth while injecting the cleaner into the weep hole. Works like a charm.

1ml-insulin-syringe-pin.jpg
Click to expand...
 
The Fuxtor said:
I like the syringe trick!!
Click to expand...

The two volume pots on my Bottlehead preamp were cutting in and out even after drenching them in contact cleaner. The folks over at the Bottlehead forum said the only way to clean them was disassembly. I was on the verge of doing so when I tried the syringe and man did it save me a world of trouble. I thought the contact cleaner spray was penetrating the right spots but it wasn't. Thankfully the syringe did.

I use the CRC contact cleaner from Lowes. It cleans and quickly evaporates.
 
If at all possible I put an old rag or something under the control I'm cleaning even if it's contact spray that evaporates quickly. Once it's thoroughly clean then the lube in small amounts to keep it that way. I actually have better luck using the contact cleaner and a little lube and it's working out to be quite a bit cheaper than going crazy with DeOxit.
 
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