The volume control of the cheapie Sony "transistor" AM FM radio I bought about a year ago does not operate smoothly at low volumes. Could I try spraying it with something, and if so, what do people recommend?
Even if not cost-effective, I hate to throw things away. Further, it has the best FM performance of any small radio I have ever had.
Have you tried 'working' it - turning it rapidly clockwise then counter-clockwise (or rapidly up and down if a slider mechanism) - for
20 seconds or so?That should clear any dust which may be affecting its operation.
HTH
Another old trick of the trade is to rub the carbon track with the point of a HB graphite pencil.
Apply lightly first & check the result - it can alter the audio curve if over applied.
The usual fix is to flush the pot with something designed for cleaning pots or contacts.
You might also try one of Caig's products.
I'm wary of anything involving any kind of solvent - I've seen ABS pot body molding literally disintegrate before my eyes!
Spray contact cleaner. Alcohol, kerosene, or WD-40. Just about anything works. I keep running into the same problem with various "Mod-Pot" clones, where the pot is inside a square enclosure. Scratchy pots are typical. I have to drill a hole in the side, and use a syringe to inject whatever cleaner falls off the shelf first. Unfortunately, my batting average is not perfect. If the pot lube has turned to tar, solvent cleaning usually works. However, if the wiper has gouged a groove into the carbon resistive material, it will continue to be noisy. I've also used Aquadag to fill the groove on larger pots, but have never tried it on small pots. As I vaguely recall, the older cheapo imported radios had pots with an unplated copper wiper. When corroded, it causes erratic connections. Cleaning with any oxide remover (i.e. 409 cleaner) should fix that.
Maybe sell it to a radio collector and let them deal with the noisy pot? Good luck.
-- # Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060 # 831-336-2558 # http://802.11junk.com jeffl@cruzio.com # http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS
You can try a spray. Try either caig deoxit or crc 2-36.
Greg
Am 14.12.2011 18:43, schrieb spamtrap1888:
If there are loud "scratching noises" from the speaker during moving the pot, then, aditional to the cleaning tips from the others, look for bad elytics that may have leaking currents causing DC at the pot.
Jorgen
That should work - for about 20 seconds or so.
Mark Z.
I still go with flushing it.
Someone said they'd seen ABS [sic] components of a pot destroyed. ABS is a fairly stable plastic, so I doubt it was that. And this was the first I'd ever heard of compounds specifically designed to clean pots damaging the pot. It's not impossible -- just very unlikely.
Not unlikely at all! - most motorcycle helmets are ABS and carry dire warnings not to paint, apply stickers or clean with *ANY* solvent.
Once I gave a VCR mode switch a blast of switch cleaner - in the time it took to put the can back on the shelf, the cam wheel had literally turned into a pile of granules in the bottom of the chassis.
After such an expensive mishap you soon learn to respect the danger.
"Ian Field" wrote in news:zL5Gq.181355$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe09.ams:
One trick I used to use was wrapping a single turn of insulated stranded,flexible wire around the knob or shaft,and using the wire to see- saw the pot back and forth,it's easier and faster than doing it with your fingers. kinda like the bow and stick method of fire-starting,if you know what I mean.
tuner cleaner-lube spray usually works if you can get it into the pot. On the Bourns mod-pots,I used to drill a small access hole for a syringe needle I had fixed to the spray can's tube.
-- Jim Yanik jyanik at localnet dot com
snipped-for-privacy@newsfe09.ams:
-I just liberally dose the pot with after-shave lotion applied with an eyedropper. May have to apply it where the 3 terminals come out the side, or maybe down the actual shaft itelf. Works every time for me. The alcohol apparently dissolves some of the dirt and grime and things are fine for at least a year or two.
Lucky someone remembered - that's the next place to look if cleaning doesn't help.
A few months ago one of the UK hobby magazines published an email for a company giving free samples of pot lube.
Nye synthetic lubricants.
Distributed by:
The sample was; Fluorocarbon gel 813-1
The sample was tiny, so it hasn't been possible to try it on a variety of pots to see if any of the plastic parts suffer damage.
Why does no one ever seem to mention desoldering the pot and taking it apart. Then you can actually see whether it is wear,dirt, hardened lubricant, weak wiper springing or misalgnment, bad paxolin rivets, cracked paxolin etc.
Because its best to look on the bright side till all else fails.
As something in excess of 95 percent of the "dirty" pots I come across are anything else but dirty, I've long since been in the habit of removing and dismantling rather than wasting time with various potions.
Absolutely, pots that don't get 'twiddled' much might be dirty but a volume pot is prone to being worn 'out'. Sometimes a little bend of the contact wiper to an unworn part of the track (on older pots) can extend the life.
Rheilly P
are
and
This is my consensus view, assuming not due to being abused. Old pots tend to be worn. Modern small ones as used in multichanel mixers - misalignment of the flimsey wiper, plastic bodied ones - compacted grease under the flimsy wiper. I don't remember coming across a worn failing modern pot, probably swings and roundabouts of flimsey wiper metal. Stout and it wears the track and light the wiper gets mispositioned too easily
ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.