Cleaning faders and pots, help!

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RideTheCrash

RideTheCrash

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My board is rather old and has been out of production for 17 years...needless to say the faders and pots are extremely dusty and crackle like there is no tomorrow sometimes. Yorkville suggested I send it into them and they could replace the knobs and faders, but some knobs are totally gone now (they have a short supply left). I'd really not want to attempt to try hauling this thing off to Toronto, it'd be a bit awkward, plus how could changing knobs stop the crackles?

I was wondering if there was some way I could take off a knob and use some sort of contact cleaner to stop it? Sorry if this has been asked but I've never come across anything on the topic. Thanks.
 
Analog experts agree...

Caig is the best, accept no substitutes.
 
Faders- can be cleaned with alcohol or a couple other things. No matter what you end up cleaning them with, use CAIG MCL (Moving Contact Lubricant) afterwards. Cleaners strip the lube off faders, and running them up and down without lube is a great way to ruin them quick.

MCL is a pretty good cleaner by itself. Get some canned air to blow out the major fuzz, spray in some MCL and run the fader all the way back and forth a few times. You might have to do this a couple times.

Pots, you probably have to open the mixer. Spray some Deoxit (Also from CAIG), run the pot back and forth a few times. Pots don't need MCL.

This'll get you about as good as it's gonna get.
 
Thanks, do I really need to open up the whole mixer? It's quite a load, I guess I can't just take off the knob and get at it?
 
For the faders, the CAIG stuff comes with this handy little tube that will spray the stuff through the slot, you don't need to open the mixer. Pots, you can't really get to the inside of them on a mixer by taking off the knob. The dirty part that is making the noise isn't the shaft, it's called the wiper track and is inside the mixer, behind the shaft. You might get some to slide down the shaft to the track, but it will make a mess. Might be just enough, though. Every little bit helps. :)
 
Seventeen years is a long time...

and a lotta crud. And it's a desk, not Humpty Dumpty. ;)
 
Man, I treat this thing like Humpty Dumpty because once I attempted opening it and almost didn't get it back on (it sits in an old flight case, pretty much built onto it). There was a bunch of wires and that was about all I saw when I opened it, the fact it has no bottom and just sits in the case makes me worry I'll somehow mess it up.

I don't trust myself, I killed 1970s amp a few weeks ago by just unscrewing the back panel and one of the screws came loose and something fell inside and now it sits at my girlfriend's house, waiting for her dad to come fix it (heh, thank god for electricians). But if you can assure me I won't kill my board I'll attempt it 'cause it's driving me nuts, I just did some rough tracks for fun, and I tried panning two rhythm parts left and right (hard) and the second panning knob crackles so much it pretty much cuts out.

Attached, is a picture of my board...not the greatest for showing the whole sucker, but it was a cool shot.
 

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It's an "AudioPro 16-S". Yorkville used to make them in the 80s. For a 16 channel board it's quite large compared to how small they make them today. I bought it from my "step-cousin" about 2 years ago, where he had got it from some other guy he knew. It's a nice board, besides how freaking dirty it is. I think it was meant to be more a live sound board, it has 2 channels for effect inputs, monitor channels, sub channels and a main channel. It'd be cooler if it had a metre bridge, yeah...heh.
 
The good news is that the board was made before a lot of modern surface-mount stuff was used. It probably has big resistors, caps, and the like. The circuit boards are probably rugged as hell. One of the big hassles with modern stuff is the delicacy of the circuit traces and thin circuit boards, which can flex easily if they are big.

Many modern budget (and not-so-budget) mixers use one big flat circuit board underneath the top, with all the pots, faders, etc. mounted on top of it. No choice but to take the whole thing out. Complete pain in the ass, as you have to take everything off, keep track of where it goes, etc.

A mixer that old may use a small separate board for each channel, mounted vertically. The pots will be mounted sideways, and poke up through the top. If that is the case, you can take the back/bottom off, and spray the pots without removing a single board. It will be easy to tell by looking.

ps- the pots will have a little hole you can spray deoxit into. you might have to bend the little spray-pipe to get the angle.

If you are really worried, maybe your girlfriend's dad will help you for a six-pack or something.
 
Alright thanks, that is good news. I'll see my dad can help me out cleaning wise, he's good at that sort of thing for electronics, but I do remember him suggesting contact cleaner for the faders which I assume would take the lube off. We shall see, unfortunately we're having a big snow storm (but then again, I don't have to go into work tonight, yay) so I won't be out to hunt around that CAIG stuff.
 
Your local music store might have it, as Hosa is a CAIG distributor. Maybe Radio Shack or electronics repair shops. Also check theater supply places. They usually sell a surprising range of things.
You can order it from parts express and about a million other places online.
Let your fingers do the walking, especially in snowstorms. Looks like you guys are getting blasted. :)
 
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