[sdiy] Cleaning Pots Properly (was: Cleaning amp potentiometers)

[cheater cheater]

On 10/6/05, harrybissell <harrybissell at prodigy.net> wrote:
> <blonde rant on>
>
> I usually clean my pots with steel wook and scouring powder. There
> are some 'off the shelf' products that combine steel wool with a cleaning
> agent imbedded in the pad... the names "Brillo" and "SOS" come to mind
> but I don't intend to invite a flame war on the relative merits of "Pink Pad"
> vs "Blue Pad"  (too much like red state / blue state :^).
>

blue pad is much more original - everybody uses pink pad in their
recordings, but only blue pad gives that f^2 high-frequency feel to
your sounds.

cheers,
D.
8)

> Some people like to use a sponge faced in Scotch-Brite which comes in various
> effective 'grits'... Scotch Brite is a silicon carbide coating on a polymer base.
> Nothing gets pots cleaner except DIAMOND (which is a girl's best friend, btw)
>
> Of course this is TERRIBLE advise if the pot is TEFLON coated...  You should use
> only
> a nylon pad for that.
>
> A little known technique for Aluminum pots is to boil water in them with a little
> 'cream of tartar' (available in the spice rack at the local supermarket) added.
>
> Of course I HOPE you were not referring to that 'green' kind. For that I'd
> recommend
> an old 12" Vinyl record album cover... My personal favorite might be Cheech and
> Chong's "Big Bambu"... otoh it might be hard to see those little berries on a
> background like that...
>
> Oh well I got to get back to the sink and get the rest of these dishes done...
> Toodle-ooh...     ;^P
>
> <blonde rant off>
>
> H^) harry
>
> "R. D. Davis" wrote:
>
> > Quothe Gorka Garcia, from writings of Wed, Oct 05, 2005 at 01:59:37AM -0700:
> > > So, what is the best way of cleaning them? Contact cleaner? Is it
> > > worth it or would they become scratchy again soon?
> >
> > With regards to cleaning pots, there appear to be many misconceptions
> > as to what's right, ranging from bad to worse, such as using certain
> > chemical concoctions, which eventually cause more problems, ranging
> > from contact cleaner to WD40.  What one wants to use is something that
> > properly restores the proper operation of the pot, such as CAILube
> > from Caig Laboratories.  Check it out, it will help your pots.
> >
> > Ok, now some of you, you know who you are, need to write the
> > following, one-hundred times, on a blackboard: "I will not use WD40 or
> > contact cleaner in attempts to repair malfunctioning potentiometers."
> > :-)
> >
> > --
> >    R. D. Davis                The difference between humans & other animals: an
> > www.rddavis.org  410-744-4900    unnatural belief that we're above Nature & her
> >      Dangling Spiders              other creatures, using dogma to justify such
> >    Electronic Music Studio           beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.
>
>