[AMRadio] A WD-40 Story

[Dave Harmon]

Hi Jim.....
I remember that!
But not the WD-40 bit.

I worked 35 years at Pacific Bell in the Los Angeles area and Nortel
Networks for 7 more years.
I'm very familiar with Crossbar switching and I never saw a can of WD-40 in
any of the many switch rooms that I worked.
I knew several idiots during those days and even they were smart enough not
to use WD-40 in such a way.
If they had done so....they would have been hung from the flagpole out
front....and would still be twisting in the wind today.

Later...while working in a 4E tandem switch.....someone did hose down a wire
spring power supply control relay with some sticky stuff and over time the
relay attracted dust and fuzz from foot traffic and caused a problem.
I remember finding that relay and cleaning it all out with a spray cleaner
similar to today's PureTronics non-lube cleaner.

Long ago....far away.

Dave Harmon
K6XYZ[at]sbcglobal[dot]net
Sperry, Ok.


-----Original Message-----
From: amradio-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:amradio-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of JAMES HANLON
Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2013 3:14 PM
To: AMradio
Subject: [AMRadio] A WD-40 Story

Some 30 years or more ago Homestead Air Force Base in Florida was hit by a
major hurricane, and the telephone exchange there, a Crossbar type, was
flooded.  Bell System folk from all over arrived to help recover the
exchange, and they sprayed the Crossbar Switches down with WD-40, reasoning
that since it was a Water Displacement product it would drive the water out
of the magnet coils, and the mechanical switching levers and contacts of the
Crossbar Switches.  It did and the exchange recovered and came back to life
- for a few months.  Then as the WD-40 dried and congealed, the switching
mechanism and contacts gummed up with the residual heavy hydrocarbons of the
WD-40 and the exchange was destroyed.
 
And that's why I do not use WD-40 on electrical contacts.
 
Jim Hanlon, W8KGI, Bell Labs Electromechanical Switching Device Laboratory,
1970 through 1989. 		 	   		  
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