Grease for Potentiometers

I have these old Tapco pots (pic) that are notorious for seizing up. I took apart one and it looks pretty good and think I'll go ahead and attempt to clean them .

After reading some, there is a "conductive grease" that dries out over time making the pots stick. I guess they put it in to create a nice drag feeling.  The one I took apart still worked and the grease is pretty clear looking and don't see how this could seize up any time soon. I'm guessing it may have been serviced at some point? There is some white crusty residue on the shaft I've cleaned a bit already.......
I'll have to take a real bad one apart to see if it has a different grease but I wanted to ask if I can just clean up and then repack these with some spark plug boot grease that I have available. ???......



If not, any suggestions???

Thanks!

The old tapco mixers were notorious for stiff pots in cold weather...

In general it is not a good idea to put grease inside pots...  petroleum based lubricants can attack plastic parts.  There may be some specialized contact cleaner type sprays, but i do not have any personal experience, other than production. (Pot makers can get very picky about what you do with their pots in the factory.)

JR

scott2000 said:

Is this silicone based Permatex stuff different?

And what is conductive grease? I read that anti seize grease is conductive???? This Permatex isn't so maybe I need to find something else?? I'm not sure it even matters.....

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If you think about it conductive grease would interfere with potentiometer function.

I think I read that Mackie got a lot of slack for doing this to the pots to get that nice stiff feeling but, I also read that these have to have the grease or don't work right. I did spray cleaner on some that are still connected and they do feel too dry and loose so, I'm guessing I have to find something to put in...

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Original TAPCO? or some modern re-release? That original stuff is very old. Greg Mackie and Rick Chen are still around the WWW (AFAIK) but not here.

JR

Pots are pots.  So many better pots out there now than old tapco pots.

Tapco parts problems are really more about the sliders on things like 4400 reverb.  They gum up and are generally terrible with age.  Replacements don't exist that match the pcb pinout dimensions or the travel length that's cut into the front panel.  Real drag to replace them.

Otoh, there is nu-trol by mg chemicals that's a lubricant that's food safe and safe on most plastics.

Craig labs has oil based cleaners to spray in the pot so you would not need to take apart.  Use once a year or so.  Cramoline is the product. The red one.  There are feelings about not using it but it does free up the feel.  Also I find the shaft of the pot is the problem most of the time when thing get sticky.  A drop of oil on the shaft and work it downward by rotation will free up a lot of pots. 

Lithium grease?
Best,
Bruno2000

The Grease is only used for the shaft rotation, it's not present in any electronic part, just on the mechanical side of the pot.

For the carbon track clean it with Iso Alcohol. I then put there a drop of Fader Lube

For the Grease in the shaft, lithium grease is really light, what you need is Auto Grease, that's thick and will give it a great feel, but remember only on the shaft. Go to the local Auto store
you will get a rotation feeling similar to the Omeg and Alpha pots

The auto grease is usually white!  I don't have my can here at home next time I'm there I'll check it's proper name.  It works great on old fader tracks esp when the plastic parts have lost their shape over the decades.

enginefire said:

The auto grease is usually white!  I don't have my can here at home next time I'm there I'll check it's proper name.  It works great on old fader tracks esp when the plastic parts have lost their shape over the decades.

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The stuff I´m talking about is yellowish.
I can confirm it works great on fader moving parts and also Pot shafts, metal on metal or metal on plastic.

scott2000 said:

Whoops What is the brand of that auto grease? Is it petrol smelling??? The cartridges that
I had here in my garage are oily smelling......

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The Grease I have is "Galp" brand

I dont smell petrol but I'm sure theres petrol there.

Very good thick grease

> oily smelling......

Aside from the residual Sulfur smell of less-refined petroleum products-- wheel bearing and axle grease is often compounded with Extreme Pressure additives which can be really stinky. And chemically active (they bind on the steel surface). And probably not a good choice for low-stress journals or around any sort of plastic.

What's wrong with Vaseline or sex-lube? Vaseline has enough body to add "drag".

From my days at Penny&Giles I recall the use of Kilopoise grease to set the 'feel' of pots etc.

https://www.rocol.com/products/kilopoise-high-viscosity-damping-grease

and the use of a barrier product to avoid silicon oil (used to lubricate  the guide rod in faders) migrating onto the conductive tracks

https://www.nyelubricants.com/nyebar

I caught the flu or cold so I haven't been down there for 10 days.  If you are looking for it to create drag I don't think what I'm using will be what you're looking for.

scott2000 said:

Thanks so much Newmarket!

I was originally wanting to try some damping grease but it's was a bit spendy and I figured I'd try the other options out.....

May have to bite the bullet.....

That barrier product is interesting... Some type of conformal coating??? Is it similar to the stuff you can spray on drone electronics to protect them I wonder??? I was looking at that silicone product MG makes not too long ago....

https://www.amazon.com/MG-Chemicals-Silicone-Conformal-Coating/dp/B004SPJOKK

We have a lot of people who use tvs outside here and they tend to be trashed within a couple of years.... Wonder if this Nye barrier would be the ticket ....

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The Nyebar stuff seems targeted at stopping oil migration. I think you'd probably be better off with something else for general environmental protection.
With the faders the guide rods were (I guess still are ) lubricated but the oil could migrate onto the conductive plastic tracks - obvs a bad thing. So the nyebar is used to stop this shappening although the details of where it was applied escape me.

Newmarket said:

From my days at Penny&Giles I recall the use of Kilopoise grease to set the 'feel' of pots etc.

https://www.rocol.com/products/kilopoise-high-viscosity-damping-grease

and the use of a barrier product to avoid silicon oil (used to lubricate  the guide rod in faders) migrating onto the conductive tracks

https://www.nyelubricants.com/nyebar

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The nice thing about P&G faders was you could completely disassemble them for cleaning. Lots of things get spilled into the faders.

JR