"Fred"

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."

We both had to fight the horribly humid coastal swamp gas we live in, he
in NC and I in SC. So, I had some old organs that were just awful coming
up so I tried it. I used WD40 ever since with fantastic results. It
makes a 40 year old, almost worn out expression pedal pot work like new
with audio as smooth as glass. Some of those pots are nearly unobtanium
because of their queer shafts and mountings.

Another nice thing about WD40 is its effects upon dragging or frozen pot
bearings, of course. One drop in a pot bearing and you wonder why noone
did it instead of twisting off the knob!

The new WD40 isn't even flammable any more.

** The propellant gas changed to CO2 decades ago - but the mist and liquid
certainly are flammable if exposed to a flame or sufficient heat. The can is
labelled " Flammable Gas 2".

It is a very bad idea to spray copious amounts of WD40 onto an electrical
switchboards as sometimes fuse and switch contacts get very hot and will
ignite the liquid.

Other than that warning, the stuff is indefensible in the service workshop.
Practically all the griping about it comes from folk who have never tried at
all it or used it in very inappropriate ways.

Anecdote:
------------

A customer told me about an unfortunate incident he had with a can of
"contact cleaner". In order to self treat some intermittent fault in his
tube amp head - he introduced the spray via the input and speaker jack
holes. He pretty much used up the whole damn can. Then he switched on and
the inside of the amp instantly exploded into fames.

Like many such evaporative cleaners - the solvent was alcohol, the vapour of
which can ignites with a single spark.



..... Phil