[sdiy] Cleaning scratchy pots

[René Schmitz]

Dear all,

You definitely don't want a lubricant that does turn into a resin over 
time, like some mineral oils do, because that eventually bakes the dust 
onto the track. I recon that is where the "no lube on tracks" comes from.

I've read people claim the crackling doesn't (only) come from dust/dirt, 
but from oxidation on the metal contact tips. There a lubricant would 
actually help to keep air out of the contact by creating a seal. (Some 
metal/metal contacts seem to be coated with grease for this purpose.) 
Somewhat supporting this idea is, that there are some pots that have 
wipers with a little carbon piece in it, the few ones I had in my hands 
weren't noisy even after years of storage. They must have been dusty as 
well, but if they were oxidized, the CO2 was long gone. :)

The truth is probably somewhere between this, some pots are mainly 
dusty, and some are oxidized... Requiring different treatment maybe?!

Sprays (containing typical fast evaporating hydrocarbons) might remove 
or the displace the intended greasing of the bushings. The result being 
a less smooth feel.

FWIW, the European counterparts to Caig Products seem to be
Tuner 600 / and WL from Kontakt Chemie.

Best,
  René


On 05.01.2020 21:13, Neil Johnson wrote:
> Ummmm.... I don't believe you want _any_ sort of lubricant on the track 
> itself....
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubricant#Keep_moving_parts_apart
> 
> Neil
> 
> 
> On Sun, 5 Jan 2020 at 19:17, Ben Stuyts <ben at stuyts.nl 
> <mailto:ben at stuyts.nl>> wrote:
> 
>     I believe D5 is for switches and F5 is for pots.
> 
>     Ben
> 
> 
>>     On 5 Jan 2020, at 19:24, Peter Pearson <electrocontinuo at gmail.com
>>     <mailto:electrocontinuo at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>     What you’re looking for is Deoxit D5.  You just spray it inside
>>     the pot and turn it a few times.  Works great.
>>
>>     On Sun, Jan 5, 2020 at 07:13 Antti Pitkämäki <anpitkam at hotmail.com
>>     <mailto:anpitkam at hotmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>         Hi,
>>
>>         I'm about to clean a scratchy volume pot of my Korg Polysix. I
>>         was thinking of dismantling the pot and using isoprophyl
>>         alcohol to clean the wiper contacts. However, am I also
>>         supposed to add some very small amount of lubricant (such as
>>         PRF Kontakt 7-78) to the contacts after cleaning or would it
>>         be better to leave it dry?
>>
>>         Also, in general do new factory fresh pots have lubricant on
>>         the contacts or are they dry?
>>
>>         I'm asking these questions because no amount of googling seems
>>         to give a definite answer, but if there is an answer
>>         somewhere, it's in this group 🙂
>>
>>         Thanks in advance,
>>         Antti
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