Vintage Synth Repair

On Friday 09 May 2008 03:14, Arto Koivisto wrote:
> > new sliders on synths like the arp odyssey. i was thinking of cutting
> > some slits in some kind of cloth or something. ideas? things to avoid?
>
> Avoid at least the foamy kind of packing cushion material, or whatever
> it is called (I'm not a native english-speaker thus am lacking
> vocabulary on these materials ;)

I believe the stuff you refer to here is "foam rubber",  which does indeed 
deteriorate and leave a rather nasty residue as it ages...

(Snip)
> I'm thinking about looking up something slightly more rubbery but
> retaining this foamy feel to allow the foam to recover it's shape around
> the slider. You know, maybe sth with a lot smaller and dense "air
> bubbles" or cells or whatever they're called. As you can see from the
> pics, it doesn't necessarily have to be a thin film since there's plenty
> of room between the slider and the front panel. Having something
> slightly thicker that'll compress a bit when inserted between the
> sliders and the front panel helps keeping the foam in place, with a thin
> film you should probably tape or glue it in place. The stuff I tested
> was maybe 2-4 millimeters thick.
>
> Anyway, if you come up with sth, do share what was your solution. I bet
> we're not the only one interested in a mod/hack of sorts ;)

Perhaps a visit to any bicycle or tire shop will yield an old inner tube, 
unusable in its current context but providing bits of usable rubber?

-- 
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space,  a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed.  --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
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