lubrication of wafer switches

It was the switch cleaner that made it go solid. I think it must have reacted with the grease that was already on it, or something. It was a disaster anyway.

The one today had just got unaccountably stiff, and I couldn't turn it easily.

Bill

I think you may regret the 3 in 1 in time.

Invest in a can of switch cleaner. It removes the ?gunk? and leaves only a trace of none sticky lube.

I?d get a can, give the 3 in 1 dosed switch a good spray with some paper towels positioned to catch what comes out.

I prefer this brand:

(WD40, while great for many things, is another one to avoid here. )

Way back, I used to have one of those small Electrolube dispensers, with the pull-out tube. Since then, on the odd occasion that I've needed to clean switches and pots, I've found that WD40 (used very sparingly) has worked fine.

WD40 can degrade plastic in components.

It can also leave an oily residue which ?attracts? gunk.

It is great for many things - I always have a can around- but I don?t use it for switches etc.

This article exlains WD-40 (and also 3-in-1 spray oil which they own) contains solids like vaseline.

Well in my experience it very much depends on the initial problem. If it was mechanically sticking it will do wonders, since unlike WD40, or switch cleaner it does not mostly evaporate, and the thin layer will get shoved out of the way as the contacts slide. My one issue is that this kind of oil does attract debris and then goes sticky, so every so often one seems to have to get in and do a clean up and then re lubricate. I used to use that sewing machine oil often used on model trains, as it was thinner than 3 in 1.

I assume one can still get something similar. Brian

I have one in my drawer which has an intermittent channel. I'm assuming after many years the el cheapo plating on the contacts is now all gone and the metal is oxidising. That silicon powder was quite good, but it did not seem to last long. Beware of some switch cleaner, I lost a headphone socket due to that, it melted the glue used to fix the contacts in place in the plastic moulding.

At present I have a suspected dodgy relay contact on one supply line of a sub woofer amp. Its a sealed unit and hence its not able to have the usual treatments. The fault is thus. Obviously the 200 watt amp is powered by dual rails and earth is in the middle. Each leg has a relay contact which can be broken by the protection system which monitors for things like excessive current. So when one supply line goes a bit dodgy due to contact problems the protection circuit simply pulls the relay out with a deafening crack. Very subtle,but one supposes the speaker might not like it if 40 volts was going through voice coil and it would either fry the transistors or the coil!

Brian

Yes, I'm sure we all remember valves. There was a circuit for a mono tape recorder using the bsr deck, everyone used the same design, but for record it used the same valve for amplification as for the erase and bias on record, all courtesy of a wafer switch on the record lever. Over time, say about 6 months the switch tended to arc as it was operated, and the wafer was a naff paxolin one. There soon was enough of a leak through the carbonised insulation to randomly turn on the record function while playing a tape. That buggered up every tape it played. In the end a friend got a really good quality wafer and we mounted it on some very thick wire, as of course the pins did not match the holes of the original, and the problem went away. So some people make cheap stuff and muck up an otherwise great device by simply scrimping on cost. These switches either rotary or push button for extra inputs seem to be made to such a low price that I'm not surprised at the results. On the other hand I had an old QED rotary switch, which never gave any trouble, since it was based on good quality wafers inside. I cannot say the same for their toggle or rocker speaker switches though, I've had many failures to connect on one channel with these, even though they seemed to be using what looked like Bulgin mains switches. I suspect that it was just not as good since they were designed for mains, not low voltage work. Brian

Yes I had a Realistic short wave radio back in the day. A very nice set, but it had been sitting in a shed and some dust had got into the mains capacitor, and it was insulated by mica leaves, these deformed the placates then relaxed resulting in drift. They sent me a new capacitor, and a little tiny phile of oil. The letter said it is suggested you use this on the waver bandswitch as it will probably be intermittent. That was in the days when customer service meant what it said on the tin. Brian

Yes WD stands for water displacement, and that is what its good for. I think the 3 in one will be ok as long as it was applied really sparingly, like with a mini pipette you used to get for model trans. In his case it sounded like mechanical problems not electrical, so the front mechanism for indexing would be my first ports of call. I used to build up wafer switches from those RS kits and normally it was the indexing that got stuck. Brian

I always assumed that the cleaner dissolves certain plastics, but, since (I think) switch cleaners are always IPA with a propellant that's perhaps unlikely. I have a preference for ones without a lubricant in the belief that the oil might gum up the works. Or maybe that's unlikely.

Many use WD 40. But like some others, a short term fix. Longest lasting I've found is Servisol.

Razor or hair clipper oil.

I've been shy of switchcleaner for wafer switches since the incident I described. The switchcleaner just locked the thing rigid.

Bill

Yes it seemed to be the indexing.

Bill

There now seem to be almost a dozen varieties of WD40. See screwfix

I wonder if you actually didn't use enough and what you did use cleaned off the lighter elements, but left only the hardened grease, without and lubricant to ease movement?

WD40 is stoddard's plus mineral oil. And is in no way a superlube. It routinely removes more lube than it adds. Bad reactions can happen, though not often. Many radio restorers use wd40 on switch contacts, though it's not as good as the proper stuff.