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Old 28th Apr 2009, 11:14 am   #16
kalee20
Dekatron
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Lynton, N. Devon, UK.
Posts: 7,059
Default Re: cleaning tuning capacitors

Well, I like the chassis of my radios to be things of beauty, also, and I give my tuning capacitors a good seeing-to. Having said that, although I supported the idea of a dishwasher in my earlier post, I've not actually done this because the dishwasher in my house is me!

The last variable capacitor I cleaned was of Polar manufacture, rivetted and soldered together, and I didn't disturb these. So, I cleaned everything with white spirit and a soft paint brush. I find white spirit in a pump-action spray bottle, ex-bathroom cleaner, is really useful as you can put a bit of force behind the spray.

After cleaning and thoroughly drying (2 days), I re-lubricated the bearings using a mixture of motor grease and Moly-slip, thinned down with enough paraffin so that I could squirt it using a hypodermic syringe and flexible tube, putting it exactly where I wanted it, a good blob between each ball. The idea is that the paraffin will inevitable evaporate but the grease will be left behind. There is a wire spring to give good contact with the rotor, and this I left unlubricated (although thinking about it some switch contact grease would not come amiss here).
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