Cleaning 9 pin tube sockets (duh)

[patrick620]

I dont know why this never occurred to me before and I have never heard this mentioned. I just tried it and it worked great. I used a piece of wound guitar string of a suitable size. Maybe others out there have tried this already but I thought I would pass it along.

[martin manning]

This came up recently on another bb, and one of the members suggested that it might not be the best way to clean sockets. The metal contacts are likely to be plated to prevent corrosion, and using a guitar string might scrape more plating off. The result is a short term improvement but more exposed base metal and more problems later on. I tend to agree. Applying contact cleaner such as Deoxit on the tube pins and inserting and removing them several times seems like a better solution, and may afford some protection against future problems.

[patrick620]

This came up recently on another bb, and one of the members suggested that it might not be the best way to clean sockets. The metal contacts are likely to be plated to prevent corrosion, and using a guitar string might scrape more plating off. The result is a short term improvement but more exposed base metal and more problems later on. I tend to agree. Applying contact cleaner such as Deoxit on the tube pins and inserting and removing them several times seems like a better solution, and may afford some protection against future problems.

Makes sense.

[Structo]

I've used pipe cleaners with DeOxit sprayed on them but the old standby is to just use a tube wiping off the residue when done.

[patrick620]

I've used pipe cleaners with DeOxit sprayed on them but the old standby is to just use a tube wiping off the residue when done.

Yes. I just thought I was maybe onto something, lol.