[GreenKeys] Plug and jack maintenance?

[Sam Hallas]

Jim Haynes wrote:
>  I'm finding that some very old plugs and jacks and not making good
>  contact because of tarnish.  I remember around the old telephone
>  office there was a can of plug polish that looked a lot like silver
>  polish, and the procedure was to smear a little on the plug and then
>  use a wrap of something like shoelace material to polish the plug.

I see you've had a good selection of ideas, Jim. However, I can add the 
following.

In Britain the techs in telephpne exchanges used to clean plugs using 
something called bank cleaning tape. This was, as you might guess, a 
sort of bootlace material impregnated with polish, like jeweller's 
rouge. The tape was normally used on a curved tool to clean the 
semi-circular contact banks on exchange switches.

They put the plugs in a bench vice and wrapped a turn and a half of tape 
round. Using a see-saw motion they worked from the sleeve to the tip 
till the plug was clean.

I suspect liquid cleaners like Brasso will leave some sort of residue 
which might be harmful to the metal if not cleaned off.

Cheers,
Sam