allen and heath home repair help
- Thread starter orksnork
- Start date
Good catch Boingo. Somehow I missed the WD-40 part. Virtually every tech will tell you to never use WD-40 for the reasons you mentioned. What WD-40 is good at is dramatically reducong the life of a pot or fader and making it virtually uncleanable without fully disassembling the pot or fader and soaking it.
sauce
New member
Any contact cleaner is going to leave a residue. Silicon based, especially. Anything that puts moisture on the the contacts is going to attract dirt. If the dirt is already there, does your magic contact cleaner make it dissappear? No it scoots it around and off the contacts only to return later. I was simply offering a simple solution (that works, and i haven't noticed it to decrease part lifetime,) rather than having a guy spend time and money sourcing faders and parts. I am not saying it's ideal, which is way I said Contact cleaner first. It's just a solution that will clean the contacts and the fader will work nicely for quite some time.
True all cleaners will leave stuff behind. No vacuum really gets everything either. That does not mean that there is not a drastic difference between different things. Do a little research and talk to people that do this for a living. They would choke if you told them you were using WD40.
Its like the difference between gaff tape and duck tape. They are both tape and both are sticky. One of those however leaves MUCH less residue behind and damages things MUCH less. Than again one is also much more expensive. This is also true of cleaners and solvents etc...
Its like the difference between gaff tape and duck tape. They are both tape and both are sticky. One of those however leaves MUCH less residue behind and damages things MUCH less. Than again one is also much more expensive. This is also true of cleaners and solvents etc...
Here is your classic D5 spray:
Deoxit 5% spray
Here is the same thing, but safe for all plastics, which D5 is not. I have definitely lost a few jacks spraying D5 on them.
Deoxit DN5
About cleaners vs. lubes- Deoxit, WD-40, etc. are cleaners. They do their best to dig through all the shit on your fader tracks and push everything else out of the way- including lubrication. Carbon- and plastic-track resistors like pots and faders need lubrication, or they can shred themselves in a short time. That's why people don't use WD-40, especially since it gets very gummy and sticky as well.
Deoxit 5% spray
Here is the same thing, but safe for all plastics, which D5 is not. I have definitely lost a few jacks spraying D5 on them.
Deoxit DN5
About cleaners vs. lubes- Deoxit, WD-40, etc. are cleaners. They do their best to dig through all the shit on your fader tracks and push everything else out of the way- including lubrication. Carbon- and plastic-track resistors like pots and faders need lubrication, or they can shred themselves in a short time. That's why people don't use WD-40, especially since it gets very gummy and sticky as well.
sauce
New member
I didn't realize duct tape damages things.......I guess if everyone says it it must be right......Kinda like the 1000 dollar speaker cable as compared to the 50 dollar cable. Once again, as I pointed out, I DID NOT SAY "WD40 was the best contact cleaner in the world, if you use anyhting else you are stupid." I said WD40 will work if you don't have anything else. Interesting to see that FaderLube is suggested after the cleaner, since WD40 "breaks down lubricants." You would think the superior product wouldn't do the same thing as WD40. I am done defending myself here. I realize that WD40 is NOT a great contact cleaner but it's not going to make the FADER explode, melt or quit working.
Just because I or someone else disagrees does not mean we think you are stupid or anything. At the same time though, maybe you could learn from those who have more experience? For me, this thread is not about being right or wrong, it's about saving someone alot of headache and possibly money and time by letting them learn from my experience over the years. Getting the correct fader the first time and properly cleaning the faders is a very important thing that can really lower a persons stress level. Maybe you took this all personally with the WD40. Maybe instead you could have used it as a learning experience. The reason I spoke up so quickly and firmly is that if your advice were to be followed, you could actually be damaging things rather than fixing them. I do understand how logically you could have made a conclusion to use WD40, but now you have a bunch of better reasons not to. As far as arguing how WD40 functions compared to "superior products", it sounds to me like you need to do some research on how the cleaning process works. Call some reputed techs and find out how they do things... Many of themn don't even subscribe to using cleaners like the Caig products. However, if you ask them they will almost all tell you that in the end, the Caig products are a good way of doing your own TLC. I know they will all reccomend heavily against WD40. All of this is from experience. Over the last 10 years I have owned more than 2 dozen or so large format consoles, and at least another 3 dozen or so 24 channel and smaller consoles. After a ton of outdoor gigs they are all in constant need of maintenance and TLC. Cleaning pots and faders and even replacing them is a large part of that.
As for the duct tape thing... I would shoot someone if they put duct tape on one of my guitars, consoles, rack equipment etc... It leaves nasty residue, cakes (cooks) on very easily, and loves to strip paint and finish off after even fairly short uses. Gaff tape on the other hand is much less prone to any of those things is is the accepted style of tape to use for stage and musical applications. Even on grand pianos...
As for the duct tape thing... I would shoot someone if they put duct tape on one of my guitars, consoles, rack equipment etc... It leaves nasty residue, cakes (cooks) on very easily, and loves to strip paint and finish off after even fairly short uses. Gaff tape on the other hand is much less prone to any of those things is is the accepted style of tape to use for stage and musical applications. Even on grand pianos...
dementedchord
Psychotic State alumni ch
xstatic said:
and in that vein... a freind of mine now uses a jewlry cleaning system that operates on soundwaves for cleaning parts... mostly classic items with parts of unobtainium....
another wont let most of the caig deoxit type stuff set in the parts... he rinses them out completely with water air dries then reinstalls...
The "supersonic bath" is supposed to be one of the best ways to really get things cleaned. If I were to send stuff in for repairs this is how I would want things done. I agree that Caig is not the best solution out there, but I do feel that it is one of the easier and better home remedies.