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<p>I prefer to take slide and rotary potentiometers apart and clean
them with isopropanol. I use some silicone grease on the
mechanical part to make them run smooth again. With all other
methods most of the dirt stays inside the potentiometer and you
can not clean the wiper. Sometimes it is possible to clean the
tracks with a cotton swab from the outside. I flatten the cotton
swab with a pair of needle nose pliers. I stopped cleaning the CTS
sliders which are used in Arp synths, I replace them with Bourns
sliders on an adapter PCB. </p>
<p>Cheers,<br>
Maarten</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Op 28-4-2026 om 15:16 schreef Jacob
Watters via Synth-diy:<br>
</div>
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<div>A very important thing to keep in mind is to not use any
chemical on the carbon pad on the inside bottom of the slider.
You can wear it off by doing that. Just use a dry cleaning
swab to wipe off the dust. You can use alcohol on the rest of
the parts.</div>
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<div dir="ltr"><font face="verdana, sans-serif"
color="#444444"><b>Jacob Watters</b></font>
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moz-do-not-send="true">JacobWatters.com</a></font></div>
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<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Apr 28, 2026 at
8:37 AM H.Sergio Alves via Synth-diy <<a
href="mailto:synth-diy@synth-diy.org" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">synth-diy@synth-diy.org</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
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style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="auto">Why haven’t you vacuum right after taking it
out from under the bed? That would have saved you a lot of
work… I remember fixing one many years ago and the faders
weren’t that bad to take apart, clean with 70%IPA (so it
won’t damage the tracks) and it worked nicely. It was a fair
amount of hours tho… i did replace that crumbling foam
entirely with a thin layer of black felt (almost as thin as
see through). Client never complained (and did sent more
stuff to fix). Best of luck and lots of patience ;)</div>
<div><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, 28 Apr 2026 at
13:27, Mike Bryant <<a
href="mailto:mbryant@futurehorizons.com"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">mbryant@futurehorizons.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
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<div
style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
Felt makes a good shield for faders. </div>
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<div
style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
But unfortunately unless they are the really
expensive P&G or similar ones, taking them apart
will most probably actually make things worse. We
did use to have a spray for cleaning sliders but I
think it got banned around 2005</div>
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style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
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<div
style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
Best bet is to buy new ones of the same size.</div>
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style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">From:</b>
Synth-diy <<a
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on behalf of <a
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target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">rburnett@richieburnett.co.uk</a>
<<a href="mailto:rburnett@richieburnett.co.uk"
style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">rburnett@richieburnett.co.uk</a>><br>
<b style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Sent:</b>
28 April 2026 12:53<br>
<b style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">To:</b>
Synth Diy <<a
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<b style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Subject:</b>
[sdiy] Slide pot cleaning</font>
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<div><font size="2" style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span
style="font-size:11pt">
<div>Can anyone recommend a good process for
cleaning dust our of slide
<br>
potentiometers on an old Roland SH-09?<br>
<br>
The synth was stored underneath a bed in the
spare room when we moved <br>
house about ten years ago, and I *thought* it
had a dust cover over it! <br>
It turns out it didn't (>.<) and the
slide pots are in quite bad shape <br>
now.<br>
<br>
The synth is functional but the sliders feel
scratchy and there is <br>
obviously intermittent electrical contact
because cutoff, LFO rate, etc <br>
jump around a lot when the sliders are
adjusted. The slide switches are <br>
okay, and the keys aren't too bad after a bit
of use.<br>
<br>
I've removed the front panel and also found
that there is some sort of <br>
black felt/foam sheet that was obviously
originally meant to be a dust <br>
shield for the slide pots. The problem is
that this material has become <br>
brittle and literally crumbles upon touching.
Can anyone recommend a <br>
good material to replace this with?<br>
<br>
If I can fix the pots with a squirt of some
magic spray that would be <br>
fantastic, but I'm also prepared to de-solder
then and carefully open <br>
them up for cleaning if that is what is
required. I would rather take <br>
time to do the job properly, but not sure what
is the best way to <br>
proceed? I have access to a dry
compressed-air line, dish soap, cotton <br>
buds, Isopropyl alcohol, acetone, silicone
grease, <br>
soldering/de-soldering tools, etc, but don't
want to risk making the <br>
problem worse without asking for advice first.<br>
<br>
Thanks in advance for any advice,<br>
<br>
-Richie,<br>
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