Can potentiometers be lubricated?

Not easily. You can squirt them with switch cleaner (NOT WD40, which contains additives), but if you're not careful this will simply create a solution of gunge which will deposit all the dirt back on the track when it dries.

The only certain cure is to dismantle the pot and clean the track with a cotton bud or similar, but replacement is probably easier.

Don't know much about Rolands but it is possible when you disassembled the pots you might find they are rotary pots driven by a helical ribbon and slider. Some of this old equipment used them since they were less sensitive to dirt. It would be a purely mechanical problem. Richard

Darn. Some time ago I had a noisy pot and squirted WD-40 into it. Worked it around a few times and the noise was gone - that pot is still working ~20 years later and I've been using it on pots ever since. It even worked on the old type turret VHF TV tuners.

Contains additives? Unless you've got a can of vacuum, you have additives. What is in WD that should cause problems? It is flammable, so I don't think I'd use it indiscriminately. I looked at a can and the ingredients aren't listed.

You're not the first person that says "don't use WD-40 on pots," so either someone (or several people) have had a bad experience with it, or this is the "conventional wisdom," and hasn't been challenged.

Anyone with different empirical results?

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I also use WD-40 for around 30y w/o problems for pots, switches & many other stuff except for PC fans!

as far as I can tell it's basically wax and kerosene. ther kerosene will evaporate given time leaving the wax which shouldn't cause many problrms.

using oil is bad, but WD40 isn't oil.

there's not much that can be done for a pc fan with noisy bearings. a drop of light machine oil may pospone the problem for a few months.

Bye. Jasen

On Mon, 19 Sep 2005 23:17:23 +1200, Jasen Betts wrote as underneath my scribble :

Put a small felt pad which will gently wick light oil to the shaft - works every time and lasts for ever if you give the pad a drop when the noise starts! Charlie+

I don't have a can in front of me, but they used to have a warning that it was not suitable for electrical usage. Also, the residue turns into a hard, shellac like film. I have a friend who is a gun collector and he has told me how hard it is to clean gun parts that were "lubed" with WD40.

On Mon, 19 Sep 2005 23:17:23 +1200, Jasen Betts wrote as underneath my scribble :

Put a small felt pad which will gently wick light oil to the shaft - works every time and lasts for ever if you give the pad a drop when the noise starts! Charlie+

months.

Jasen Betts wrote

shouldn'

it

I don't have a can in front of me, but they used to have a warnin that it was not suitable for electrical usage. Also, the residue turn into a hard, shellac like film. I have a friend who is a gu collecto and he has told me how hard it is to clean gun parts that were "lubed with WD40

at

shouldn't

it,

I've had remarkable success by immersing the fan in kerosene and letting it run immersed for a day, then running it immersed in Marvel Oil for a day.

Jim

Oh yes, it can! :-) I use "heavy lithium automotive" grease (that brown or green stuff for junctions) filled in the bearings hole under the brand sticker up to

Oh, I wouldn't buy that.

A - - - NUMBER ONE : if the stuff turned to shellac (and I have a lot of experience with shellac from the 50's with gas engines and woodworking) Oh, and actual shellac - that stuff from beetles.

the pots I lubed with the stuff should be sticky (I flooded them with WD-40) There is no sticky residue.

Well, would you recommend "electrical usage" if your propellants contained propane, and the solvents were flammable?

I'm not a "gun nut." I have a few rifles I lube with WD40. I use the stuff because it stays "soft" for years. I can take a gun out and fire it after five years with WD40 in the barrel. Most gun lubes will work the same as WD40 in that respect.

If the rifle won't be used in awhile it gets WD40 on a wire brush and WD on a cotton patch. I don't clean or take care of it between using it beyond that. And the last time I shot one of my rifles was 10+ years ago.

I'm just saying there's a lot of "conventional wisdom" that contraindicates using the stuff for pots. But no proof.

My guess is that no one has actually done a "study," my own experience not withstanding . . .

I worked in the 50s' with the "Tuner Clean." Tuno-Wash," Tuner Spray." et al. They contained a propellant and some wax/oil etc. to contain corrosion and "clean" the tuner, and leave visible coating over the parts. WD40 works as well . . . without the visible grunge.

Those other things just left a coating of foamed hydrocarbons and pigments on the tuners.

SO . . . I don't give a damn what you "learned." Have you used it on pots? I have - 20 years of experience. - you say it won't work.

I wasn't around in the machinist colonies in the 70's in S.California

- I got there in 72. They were using the stuff like it was water. I used it on everything.

Now maybe there was some WD40, pre-70's, that would cause a varnish buildup.

Reevaluate your opinion - on empirical results, Yourself - Today.

No, but I've replace a lot of pots that had been sprayed with WD-40. Do whatever the hell you want. I will use the proper chemicals for my work, thank you. I still have one can of "Quietrole" left, and if I'm careful, it will outlast me.

I doubt that you've replaced a lot of pots sprayed with WD. That just doesn't ring true.

Not many people use it for pots from what I can see so there shouldn't be that many "contaminated" pots around.

And how does that happen exactly? You work in consumer electronic repair and people bring in their gear and sheepishly confess to using WD on the pots? And the pots are bad, as a result of the spray?

Wonder what's in Quietrole?

Ever use that "Blue Shower" gunk? That stuff left a real mess, but seemed to work OK.

They used to put trichloroethane in electronic cleaners - that stuff was found to be causing corrosion on the lead bonds of some aluminum electrolytic caps. But not from the sprays - from using it to clean the flux off circuit boards where the exposure was longer.

I've replaced thousands of pots in the last 40 years. Some died a natural death, while others had help from butchers who shouldn't be allowed around electronics.

Yes, I did work in consumer electronics at one time, and you wouldn't believe the crap the customers would try before bringing in something for repair. I lost count of the tape heads that were cleaned with sandpaper, drive belts soaked in different automotive chemicals to soften them, layers of electrical tape over pinch rollers, and parts that were dripping with WD-40 and other chemicals. The best was the early japanese TV sets with a lot of styrene that dissolved when some cheapskate would use brake cleaner or electrical contact cleaner and you found a lump of bubbly plastic with the contacts and coils embedded in it.

They don't have to admit to it when its still dripping from the pot's body.

I have no idea. They are out of business, but it was the first contact and control cleaner approved by NASA.

Blue Shower was first sold as TV tuner cleaner and left a huge mess inside TV sets. I've seen it drip to the bottom of the TV's case, and then onto the carpet or floor. Talk about a big mess, and angry customers. You were supposed to give the tuner a "Bath" with the foam and it was supposed to stick to the inside of the tuner for continuous cleaning. I tried it on something in the shop, and went back to GC's "TV Tuner cleaner"

I preferred IPA for hand cleaning, but we used a citrus based solvent in the automated board washer at Microdyne. I did use Trichloethylene a few times in the '70s to hand clean boards, but the fumes were too much for me.

Sure I would. I'll never forget this Hispanic guy that brought in a Hitachi portable some time in the late 60's. Of the 15-20 vacuum tubes in the set only 5 actually belonged in that set. His technique, apparently was to replace tubes one at a time, if the tube fit the socket and lit up (series set) it must be good.

The bill to repair the set was more than it was worth - but he wanted it fixed and paid the bill. The only problem, outside of his attempt at repair, was a bad filter cap.

My favorite customer was the one who insisted we were returning someone else's TV to her - We just cleaned the outside of her set and fixed some of the blemish's in the finish. Years later on a service call she still thought she had the wrong set.

Or the old codger, with an equally old set, who wired a"blab off" to his set (his description for a mute switch). His blab off was a switch on a long pair of wires that shorted the audio output transformer primary.

I only worked in consumer electronics for a short time - but the day didn't go by where there wasn't something outlandish.