[GreenKeys] Re: GreenKeys Plug and jack cleaning...

[Don Robert House]

I have some experience with cleaning jacks and plugs.

I forgot to bring home my plug polishing machine when I was last  
working at Pulse Engineering in San Diego.
The machine makes polishing dozens of plugs simple, but they do not  
make the machines any more.
most of the new cords have smaller "Bantam" plugs on them that are  
nickel-plated.

Here is my advice...

Section I

This is done best by someone who is patient.

First off it is best to plug only clean plugs into jacks.  This way  
the jacks are constantly wiped by a clean plug.

If you have brass plugs this is the routine...

Buy a roll of white lacing.  this is the stuff that the military uses  
for their dress boots.  If you cannot find a roll of this, then buy a  
couple of packages of white laces for boots or ice skates.

Plug polish is hard to find anymore so I use BRASSO.  It is the same  
stuff I used to shine the brass buttons on my dress coat in military  
school.
You shake the can (before opening is best) and poor a little into a  
container about the size of a 35 mm plastic film container.  The  
container should be plastic or glass and not metal.

You tie one end of about 12 - 14 inches of the boot lacing to  
something solid.  In the phone company we always used a hole in a  
relay rack.

Dip the plug into the BRASSO and remove the excess with a small cloth  
or  swab.  Leave a thin coating of the stuff on the plug.

Wrap the plug with one turn of boot lacing.  Hold the loose end of the  
lacing and run the plug up and down or back and forth until it is  
bright and shiny.

Have a second clean lacing tied up to do the final polishing to remove  
any polish.  You will find that the plug if properly polished will be  
somewhat warm.

When the finishing lacing starts to get black replace it.  When you  
are finished let the cable lay in a box with some desiccant for a  
couple of hours.

When all of your plugs are cleaned and polished take a nice one and  
run it in and out of the jacks you want to clean.  It is not advisable  
to use BRASSO on the jacks.

If you are patient you can roll some emory paper around an super glue  
it to a small wood dowel rod and use this to clean the opening of the  
jacks.  Don't over do it.
The jacks can be removed from the panel with their wires connected and  
you can use thin emory paper strips to clean the jack contacts.

As I said above the idea is to not get the plugs dirty to begin with.   
Once polished keep them in that box with the desiccant.

All of this was about brass plugs and brass jacks.

Section II

If you have nickel-plated plugs you do not use polish on them.  You  
just run them until they get warm with the white boot lacing.
If you have nickel-plated jacks you need not use anything except a  
swab dipped in alcohol to clean them.

FINAL WARNING.
MAKE SURE THE POWER IS OFF OF THE JACKS BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO CLEAN THEM
MAKE SURE BOTH ENDS OF THE CORD WITH PLUGS ON IT ARE FREE.  -130 VOLTS  
ON A PLUG WHILE YOU ARE POLISHING IT WILL RUIN YOUR DAY.

Don
Many moons doing this as a transmission engineer testing transmission  
devices.