Cleaning tube legs...

[Steve Jones]

I am curious to know how folks clean the pins on vacuum tubes - chemical and/or mechanical. I polish them with a soft pencil eraser, but is there an easier way? I usually use Deoxit for the sockets, it seems to work pretty well, but It really doesn't get rid if heavy vedigris.

 

[Guest]

For the heavy crud in a socket I use a very small tool used to clean welding tips. You can find it in hardware stores.

 

[PRR]

I've used pipe-cleaners (from tobacco shop) to clean sockets. There is the soft kind for delicate gently-smoked pipes, and a heavy-duty kind with stiff bristles for tarred-up pipes. Use the stiffy to break oxidation, and the soft kind to work solvent or deOx into the hole.

There used to be tube and socket cleaning gizmos. If you inherit some old-time tech's collection of stuff, there will be a few of these in there. I have not seen one in a long time.

For 1/4" patchbays, go to the gunshop and say you need to clean a .22 caliber pistol. The brushes come in nylon or brass: start with the nylon but I've had to use the brass on old mistreated jacks. You can also get a handy pistol-size handle just right for working in a live patchbay without taking all the plugs out. You can get all this in a kit, but then you pay for solvent and oil that may not be good for electronics; I found brushes and a handle in bags pretty cheap.

 

[Guest]

I usually use contact cleaner without any added lubricant as I was always under the impression that lubricant left behind in deoxit type formulas would cause various debris from the air to build up on the contacts, leading to arcing and other nastiness eventually.

Zach

 

[CJ]

For the tube pins themselves, you can scrape them with an exacto knife.
That's what I did when I soldered those wires direct to the tubes in my headphone amp.
You can use a dentist's pick to retension the sockets after you clean them.

I think Antique in Az might have some goodies:

www.tubesandmore.com