On 2/8/2011 9:36 AM Fred spake thus:

Decades ago, I met an old organ repair technician at a Roland tech
seminar to become a certified Roland repair station. Most of the rest of
the participants were much younger than us, so we gravitated together and
had lunch.

I was spending a fortune each year buying products like DeOxit to clean
organ controls, the thousands of metal to metal contacts before
everything became conductive rubber. Talking about the price of this
stuff, which would make you think a pharmaceutical company produced it in
a lab, he said something to me that simply shocked me.

"Hell, you're wasting your money on all that crap. I've been cleaning
hifi, PA and organ contacts with WD40, which is very cheap and easy to
find without going to the most expensive electronic repair company and
paying their exhorbitant prices. I've been doing it for lots of years
with no returns or complaints. I think because it leaves a lube residue
on anything it touches the contacts stayed cleaner because they weren't
exposed to the moisture in the air."

While not the same application, I've had good luck also using WD-40, or
at least WD-40-like substances on pots.

Someone gave me a 3/8" variable-speed drill that had a flaky speed
control. Since it was a freebie, I thought what the hell, sprayed the
control with some stuff I had for lube jobs (something called "EZ-Lube"
that I picked up several years ago, similar to WD-40 but a little better).

That drill works fine still, and is my go-to drill. So no need to use
that expen$ive cleaning product.


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Comment on quaint Usenet customs, from Usenet:

To me, the *plonk...* reminds me of the old man at the public hearing
who stands to make his point, then removes his hearing aid as a sign
that he is not going to hear any rebuttals.