Cleaning inside female electrical contacts, 1/16" - Tiny pipe cleaners?

[ScottBouch]

Hi all, (hope I'm asking this in the right forum place)

I am trying to clean off some tarnishing inside of tubular female contacts from Plessey Mk4 connectors. The contacts are silver plated brass, so luckily it's only surface tarnish, and other foreign body grime/dirt to contend with, not corrosion.

I am restoring a bunch of connectors that have spent many years living outside in all weathers, so they are in a bit of a poor state, but surprisingly clean up very well.

I have cleaned the male contact pins by very gently using a fibreglass pen (so as not to abrade or thin down the silver plating), but I need to get something down inside the female contacts to perform a similar cleaning operation.

Some years ago at an old workplace we had a desoldering station, it came with some tiny metal pipe-cleaners in a set for cleaning inside the desoldering nozzles. I'm unsure what the metal would have been.

Now, I wondered if a similar item exists that I could use to clean inside these contacts? Maybe with fibreglass bristles? I have struggled to find such a thing on the unmentionable auction website, so thought I'd ask here to see if anyone can help me find such a tool.

The internal diameter of these contacts is a nominal ~1.6mm, 1/16".. so I am looking for a really tiny pipe cleaner! Does such a thing exist? What is it properly called? Where can I find it? What materials are available as bristles?

Or if any bright spark has alternative ideas, I'm open to suggestions! I don't want to use a drill or reamer, as these will remove the silver plating and score the surface, but maybe something like an orange wood (or other hardwood) dowel may work, but finding a dowel 1/16" in diameter is a bit of a tall order!

Cheers, Scott.

[Boulevardier]

Originally Posted by ScottBouch

finding a dowel 1/16" in diameter is a bit of a tall order!

Wooden cocktail sticks?
Mike

[M0FYA Andy]

Perhaps a silly suggestion, but have you tried 'ordinary' pipe cleaners? There look to be plenty available, not necessarily aimed at pipe cleaning, but as childrens toys for making model animals etc. As long as the central wire goes into the contact the 'fluff' should follow.

Andy

[ScottBouch]

Originally Posted by Boulevardier

Wooden cocktail sticks?
Mike

That didn't cross my mind, thank you... they may be a bit larger in diameter than 1/16 though - I will have to find one and see... Not seen one in years but there is bound to be some lurking in the kitchen somewhere!

[ScottBouch]

Originally Posted by M0FYA Andy

Perhaps a silly suggestion, but have you tried 'ordinary' pipe cleaners? There look to be plenty available, not necessarily aimed at pipe cleaning, but as childrens toys for making model animals etc. As long as the central wire goes into the contact the 'fluff' should follow.

Andy

Thanks, that may work if the central wire is thin enough, not sure if the fluff will clean off the tarnish as well as fibreglass though, but maybe dipped in bit of Brasso/Autosol first?. I will raid the kids art & craft box to see what I can find.

[Boulevardier]

But Andy is also right. Most of the thickness of a pipe-cleaner is just compressible fluff. Might well work.
Mike

[ronbryan]

I use TeePee dental brushes dipped in Servisol.

Ron

[turretslug]

Try a search along the lines of "fibre optic cleaning buds" - these are like the cotton buds associated with pharmacies but much slimmer. Used in quantity for cleaning the likes of ST, SMPTE etc. optical connectors with soft but tough fibres that shouldn't shed lint.

[Nickthedentist]

Originally Posted by ronbryan

I use TeePee dental brushes dipped in Servisol.

Ron

Seconded.

https://www.tepedirect.com/product-c...shes/original/

[ScottBouch]

Houston: We have a solution!!!

I just spotted in the bathroom this morning that my wife has a pack of Wisdom re:new "interdental brushes" - which are tiny little pipe cleaners with stiff little bristles! for poking between teeth.

The core wires are overall 0.5mm, with the perfect length bristles. I think the bristles may be nylon or similar.

I found we had no Brasso or Autosol, so I went into full-on-dental mode and used some watered down Colgate toothpaste instead!

The results are really brilliant!! Nice and shiny surface inside these contacts now!

It's funny how exactly what I was initially looking for was under my nose all along...

I'll try to take some close-up pictures in a bit.

Cheers, Scott

[ScottBouch]

Originally Posted by ronbryan

I use TeePee dental brushes dipped in Servisol.

Ron

See above post - written in parallel at the same time!

[ScottBouch]

I have some Servisol switch cleaner, never really used it - is abrasive like the toothpaste? Or does it chemically remove tarnish? It may be a better choice if so.

Cheers, Scott.

[Reelman]

It is possible to obtain thinner pipe cleaners than the usual ones. They are sold as such and are used for the Falcon metal stemmed pipes for which the ordinary cleaners are too thick to penetrate.

However I think that finding a tobacconist that stocks them will be more of a problem these days! However, plenty on eBay.


Peter

[paulsherwin]

I was also going to suggest dental brushes.

Servisol is a solvent cleaner and not abrasive.

[Jez1234]

Yep interdental brushes but you have to rinse them in odd tasting pink liquid and give them a sweetie afterwards.

[ScottBouch]

Results attached! Before cleaning on the left, after a good scrub on the right.

I have now tried some with Servisol Super 10 and they do come up cleaner, not as shiny as with toothpaste, but I prefer to not abrade the surface, so will continue with Servisol Super 10 in preference to an abrasive.

These little interdental brushes are brilliant! Note how these have a round shaft/handle, this makes it easy to spin them in the fingertips.

These pins have been exposed to the elements for many years, mainly over the 1980's and 1990's, as they were part of a fairly historic Avro Anson G-AGPG, which was used as a flying test bed for Concorde's weather radar development, see its sad history here: https://derbosoft.proboards.com/thre...y-avro-19-agpg

A photo of the full connector prior to strip-down is attached, to illustrate the overall condition.

Cheers, Scott