DIYbanter - View Single Post - WD-40 to clean electric contacts?

rickman

On 5/2/2017 9:38 AM, wrote:
On Monday, May 1, 2017 at 9:31:55 PM UTC-4, Phil Allison wrote:
Prickman is a Liar wrote:

Phil Allison wrote:

** WD40 is excellent at making bad contacts good again.

Switches, connectors and pots are all examples.

Until you use it on one where the plastic bits dissolve and melt together.

** Massive LIE !!

WD40 does not harm plastics used to make electronic or electrical components.

That is the oldest and STUPIDEST crock of **** trotted out by WD40 haters.

The Prickman is a parroting MORON.

.... Phil
\

As much as I hate to agree with Phil, I believe he's right.

I've learned about unintended solvent welding of plastics with all kinds of spray elixirs, and I've also learned to test each one on soft plastics so I have an idea of what kind of consequences (if any) to expect upon usage.

WD40 has never shown any tendency to soften or otherwise affect plastics that I'm aware of. Is there a strange plastic formula that WD might affect that I've never encountered? Possibly, but I've never seen it, at least not at the level that plastic controls might be constructed of.

Maybe the "friend's" controls weren't solvent welded at all, but bound by the original hardened lubricant that was dissolved and rehardened later after being flushed into the shaft.

This was laboratory equipment that had never seen any harsh treatment.
Anything is possible I suppose, so maybe the controls weren't melted by
the WD-40. But the fact remains that regardless of the exact details
surrounding the problem, it was caused by the indiscriminate use of
WD-40 where it does nothing to help.

So caution is advised when using WD-40 on electronics regardless of the
details of how it mucks up the works.

--

Rick C