[Bob Hetherington]

Rescue Audio - Part 3 - Cleaning and touch-up
Final Article in the series
Author - Mark Cerasuolo

I did not say restoration, since that's a whole other subject, although I did touch on fixing up speakers by replacing a bad driver which is pretty straightforward. Electronics restoration generally implies aligning tuners and replacing/upgrading internal components beyond simple lamps and fuses and a good cleaning, which is beyond the scope of this article.


The exception might be a modest rehab through selective replacement of the unit's capacitors, depending on how electronically-handy you are. If you're interested in going that far, I've an engineer friend who recommends DigiKey as a source for any caps you might need.

Read the complete article at HomeToys.com

 

[Hank Mardukous]

A nice conclusion to your series. You gave us good, helpful information that can come in handy for people that are starting off. I find the TAP Plastics, a very useful tip that I know I will end up using some day. I just wanted to suggest that having some Windex or glass cleaner around can help for times when you score gear that used thick glass and not plastic.

Thanks for all the info, much appreciated.

Edit* I missed it, you use the Isopropyl Alcohol 70% for cleaning glass.

 

[markceras]

Thanks for the kind words!


You raise a good point, as even 70% alcohol can lift stenciled lettering off plastic and metal depending on the original application process. I cleaned up a nice old Mitsubishi receiver (the 1980 series with the retro rotary FM tuning dial) that is now minus its "power" label because even ordinary isopropyl was too strong. So yes, I'd start with Windex on anything with lettering underneath just in case.


I only use the anhydrous for cleaning contacts and the really stubborn grime around the most used controls, such as "volume." Target's house brand includes both 70 and 90%, and the second one is probably strong enough for any need (and costs a fraction of the 99.9% stuff).


The fellow who built my new Thorens dust cover is Alex, the manager at TAP Plastics in downtown Seattle. He mentioned that a lot of the locations have a resident "dust cover guy" who likes and specializes in that sort of thing, so it makes sense to call around the locations and they can refer you. TAP does a lot of hobbyist and commercial work, so the occasional CE project is fun for them. He also showed me that clear acrylic looks a lot better on older gear than smoked plastic.