[Boatanchors] Cleaning plastic tube sockets?

[Philip Atchley]

Hello,

Just a quick question here (Can I ever ask a quick question ;-)

The servicing of a National NC-183R (Rack mount) is nearing completion 
and I've noticed that there is a white "film" on the underside of nearly 
all the black plastic Octal tube sockets.  Some of this came off by 
"scrubbing" with a clean, dry paintbrush, but they could use a little 
more "cleaning".  I'm wondering if this set was wet sometime in it's 
past as the owner said the panel black crinkle panel was nearly white 
but it sure cleaned up nicely. He said he used baby oil.

I DON'T want to use any harsh cleaners oar water that would get in the 
nooks and crannies of the tube socket pins etc and cause corrosion or 
attack the plastic (the RF tube sockets are ceramic octals). Anyway, I'm 
thinking of spraying just a little WD-40 on the paintbrush itself and 
use that to scrub the bottoms of the sockets with.  Rather than causing 
moisture it displaces moisture, and my experience is that WD-40 
evaporates nearly completely over time.

Thoughts on this tactic? Is it good or bad?  YES, while doing audio 
servicing I saw many Cassette decks etc that were damaged by liberal use 
of WD-40 and I usually only use it for cleaning grease off gears, 
chassis etc.  But this 'seems' like a harmless place to use it.


73 de Phil  KO6BB
My DXing tools (RECEIVERS), all fully overhauled:
    Hammarlund SP-600 R-274C/FRR, 18 tubes (Circa 1952)
    National NC-60 Special, 5 tubes (Circa 1960)
    Heathkit Mohican  (Circa 1962)
    Icom IC-751 Digital Transceiver  (Circa 1986)
    Grundig S350 Digital Portable (Circa 2004)

THE BEACONEER'S LAIR:  http://www.geocities.com/ko6bb/
QSL GALLERY: http://photobucket.com/albums/y123/KO6BB/
Merced, Central California,    37.3N  120.48W  CM97sh

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