How To Use Wd-40 To Repair Cellphone Screen

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Safe to use WD40 as switch or potentiometer cleaner?

Discussion in 'Electronic Components' started by Franky, Aug 17, 2004.

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Is it safety to apply WD40 equally a switch (or potentiometer) cleaner on
circuit boards and in electronic equipment?
I know that you lot can get the proper aerosol spray cans of switch
cleaner but if I find myself without 1 of those then can I use
WD40?

Personally I would guess it is not OK equally I effigy there is always a
thin layer of oil but several people I have spoken to say that they
utilise WD40 all the time.

Any views on this?
No, information technology is flammable, doesn't really clean that good, and leaves a residue
that attracts dirt.
Use a existent electronic cleaner (unremarkably a heavy freon type) toll is about the
same.
Guest

Some rambling thoughts:
The carrier and other volatiles may or may not attack plasic parts
depending on the type of plastic.

I've seen contact cleaners that exit a residue detune RF circuits at
VHF and UHF frequencies.

I've seen contact cleaners that leave a remainder crusade bug with
high voltage (several hundred volts) circuits also as loftier impedance
circuits. I'm guessing that the residue acquired dust, etc. to stick
which was just conductive enough to crusade a trouble.

In general, if all you have is WD40 and you lot are judicious in applying
information technology, it should exist OK.
The following is offered for data/trivia value but. If ex-Tek
repair guy Jim Yanik happens to read this, he volition be able to confirm,
clarify or refute.
If memory serves, WD-40 has been specified in some Tek service manuals for
certain contact cleaning applications (definitely not all, and delight do
non utilise it on the ground of this anecdotal information.)

--
John Miller
E-mail accost: domain, n4vu.com; username, jsm

Life is one long struggle in the nighttime.
-- Titus Lucretius Carus
Not actually, there is nothing specially good/advisable about
using information technology. It volition leave oily moving picture behind that dissolves the
grease in moving parts (which should stay in those parts) and
will attract dust.Generally a pot will clean itself good enough if y'all merely turn it
back and forth a few times, unless the spring-metal contacts'south
tension has been reduced though vesture. If that's the example it's
"sometimes" possible to gently pry open the pot and (re)bend
contacts back out, but information technology'southward actually a concluding-ditch effort if you
can't observe another pot or need immediate fix.Why would anyone want to apply a degreaser that leaves behind a
residue of it'due south own? It may work a bit but by and large if that pot
had decades-old hardened grease, not for parts that were
regularly used. WD40 may help with mechanical part of the
pot but electrical contact should exist worse over fourth dimension.
I saw part of one of their bulletins years agone, reprinted elsewhere, and
they said something almost using WD-40 to clean the blue case on the scopes.
Michael
I used to work with a onetime safe and vault mechanic/locksmith who said
that WD40 was the worst thing you could practice to a piece of mechanism, because
the residue attracts grit and ends up being more abrasive than if yous had
left information technology lonely in the beginning place.
Bob
WD40 is a Water Dispersant and should never exist used as a switch
cleaner since it isn't, by design, either a cleaner or lubricant.
The product designs for cleaning pots, connectors and switches is
DeoxIT D5 (Caig Laboratories, Inc.)
http://www.caig.com
Hi!
??

I remember it is a lubricant, but maybe not an electrical ane.....

Information technology certainly lubricates parts on my car

Yours, Marker.
While information technology might technically have lubricant backdrop, information technology'south not a very skillful
lubricant, having been formulated as a h2o dispersant. In particular, it
doesn't take much film forcefulness.
Information technology is a pretty skillful solvent for lots of things, though, and can sometimes be
used to "rejuvinate" dried upward lubricants (which is past no means a substitute
for proper cleaning and re-lubing).

--
John Miller
Email address: domain, n4vu.com; username, jsm

When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by
one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.
-Edmund Burke
I have a Philips frequency counter with PCB mounted radio push button type
switches. Later on well-nigh 10 years the switches were intermittent and a getting
to exist a real hurting in the arse.
I tried cleaning them several times with solvents (PCB cleaner and IPA record
caput cleaner) which fabricated little deviation I tried some WD40 which worked
wonders. It is probably another 10 years on now and the switches are however
fine.

I have also used WD40 very sparingly as a lubricant for PGA processor pins
in the days earlier motherboards had ZIF sockets. It made a huge difference
to the force required to become a chip in or out and had no noticeable
detrimental effects.
NO! WD40 isn't even a adept lubricant and certainly non a contact
cleaner or pot washer.
You didn't give whatsoever details equally to the type of pot you want to clean.
some of the larger/older pots tin exist taken apart and done out, then
relubed(lithium grease) and put back together.
You can use a regular contact cleaner or a solvent such equally denatured
alchohol or isobutane(lighter fluid) to make clean it out.
Accident it out with clean dry air.(or fix it upwardly and let it air dry)
A very thin coat of lithium based lube(I use Lubriplate) then
reasemble it.
If it's a newer style pot that has a sealed plastic case the all-time you
could exercise is spray or drip sonme contact cleaner around the base of operations of the
shaft.( Sit unit of measurement up on information technology's back console to let gravity to force the
cleaner in.).
Let it sit for a few seconds and piece of work the pot up and down to get the
dust/dust worked off the contact area.
If the pot's seam around the shaft looks similar it has plenty gap to put
a picayune air in yous tin effort that to become the dust out.(I plow the unit of measurement
facing down, cover the pot with clean white paper towel and blow air
in using a fine betoken nozzle. You'll meet if your getting any clay out
by looking at the newspaper towel.)
WD40 is a mixture of kerosene and calorie-free spindle oil, not much skillful for
cleaning since information technology doesn't evaporate at any rate that would leave a dry out
surface in your life time.
Art Leonard
Why the hell would you want to fill up your switch or potentiometer with a
coating of slimy gummy oil, when cans of proper cleaner are simply virtually 1.00
more expensive than a can of WD 40...hell you might too apply PAM!
Kim
There is an interesting history of WD40 on the web at:
http://world wide web.wd40.com/AboutUs/our_history.html

I had used information technology for a long time to loosen rusted basics & bolts. One solar day
I done my car engine off at the auto launder and got water in the
benefactor cap and was trying to dry out it out with a paper towel and
some man came over with a tin can of WD40 and sprayed some in the cap and
the engine started immediately. I later saw a program on Boob tube telling
of the development of WD40 every bit a water deportation solution.

Van Gardner
The water displacement properties came about some years back with the
formula of WD40.
Up until and then it was really just a light duty oil. And as anyone
versed in corrosion control knows light oils can actually promote rust
by property water onto a metallic surface.
This was WD40'due south major failing, information technology might loosen a stuck office up but if
left on would result in rust.
If you lot want a good lubricant AND corrosion control material then you lot
get with LPS.
It comes in different grades from very light (LPS1) to very heavy(LPS4
or even five)
It displaces moisture/h2o and provides reduction in surface
friction.
You tin can use LPS 1 or 2 for electromechanical lubrication and it does
have some cleaning properties.
I used it for many years in industrial electronics in relays and
solenoids etc...
Even with the formulation change most professionals still consider
WD40 to be crap.
To make clean out your pot utilise a good contact cleaner followed past the
proper grease.(Lithium based such equally Lubriplate)
Well, so far, after reading at to the lowest degree x followups to this thread,
you lot're the simply one that's for using WD-twoscore. The others are all against.
Sorry to say information technology, only I agree with the others. WD-40 leaves a moving picture that
attracts dust and just causes more problems later.

A week ago I took ane of the smog control sensors apart on my car, and
found it to be working okay, but I'k all the same getting the problem low-cal.
The sensor has a leap loaded pin that sticks out and touches the
diaphragm, and as the pivot is pushed in, the resistance of the sensor
varies from 2k or so to nada. The terminate of this pin had a small dab of
white grease to lube it. It'due south essentially a pot with the ends at ground
and +5V, and the wiper at somewhere in between. But the three pins on
the connector were coated with a clear grease, which prevents corrosion
simply doesn't insulate the mating contacts from 1 another. This
connector is sealed with a prophylactic gasket to go along out all that nasty junk
from the engine. So these sensors rely on a pocket-sized amount of special
grease and a practiced seal to protect them from corrosion, and go along them
from giving the incorrect position info to the controller.

Whatever lubricant y'all use on a switch, it should be designed to do the
proper job, and WD-40 was not designed for that purpose. Use a contact
cleaner and lubricant that'due south made to make clean and lubricate contacts.
My thought is that using something other than articulate grease could crusade
the pot's resistance to change. Grease with an additive could be less
than an insulator, causing a reduction in the pot'due south resistance.
Another point. If a pot is worn, no amount of cleaner or lubricant is
going to make it unworn. It volition need to be replaced if the equipment
has to perform like it was when it was new.

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