#40 Shop Talk Wafer switch repair 

Awesome switch tips Buddy. Very enjoyable episode!

Wow, that is what I was looking for. Have a bad bandswitch in my FL2100z. Thanks for this amazing video. Very very usefull! I know now that my 2100z is not lost!

This is 8 years after you posted the video. I just discovered it today. Awesome demonstration and information. Thank you for showing this. I'm not so scared of wafer switches any more.

Hey you are really good at repairs..I enjoy watching to learn tips tricks on keeping old radios working

One thing I love about your videos is that you get right to the content rather than spending half the video asking for likes and talking about other videos, etc. Fine business here.

Bravo! Thank you sir for ALL your videos. I love your homespun style. Your little tips & tricks are just a delight, & a product of years of experience. I have watched many videos done by people who have NO idea what the Hell they are talking about ! You Sir, epitomize the best of the humble experts who expose the technical Prima Donnas for what they are! Well Done!

Fascinating video, Buddy :) I remember my father, a watchmaker, cleaning rust from machinery and faceplates from wristwatches with Coke. As a kid I was always thinking "This man is wasting my perfectly delicious coke!!". I wish he knew your method, I wouldnt care so much if he wasted vinegar instead ;)

Thanks Buddy. You have solved one of the most difficult aspects of repairing older ham radio equipment. Very well done!73 de K7RMJ Frank

Excellent tips; great inspiration to repair vintage radios that most techs would not attempt. This come down to a labor of love, "a true craftsman" nice to see it alive and well.

A great Video Buddy, I am sure this will help on my up & coming Switch problem, many thanks.

Learned a lot from this video!! Thank you.

To get the grime and crud out of those switches (and many other vintage parts) an ultrasonic cleaner is a very nice tool to have. Don't get the toy ones to clean jewellery with... you want one that has a sweep function. You will be amazed how good those things come out of the cleaner! Paddy

Someday I want to be this smart about maintaining my equipment. Great job and a double thumbs up!

Excellent. Entering ham world while waiting my Yaesu zd already watching videos how to service same😂 with other various stuff. Keep up mate

Great video. Something that most hams don't seem to know nowadays is that If those wafer switches are the silver plated type then that "corrosion" is actually silver oxide and is more conductive than the silver itself. They are designed not to be cleaned because as they age they become more conductive. As the old saying goes "pretty is as pretty does" I always thought it was hilarious when hams would clean tarnished silver plated PL259's thinking they were making them work better because they were all shiny and pretty. Again silver oxide is more conductive than silver itself its why they are silver plated in the first place

Very good tips The vinegar and salt works great, You and Paul have great ideas

Thanks for the wonderful video. I have an old Heathkit VTVM that I want to restore and it has corroded wafer switches. I now know what I need to do. Thanks for the info.

Always something new to learn. The salt and vinegar is a great tip. Fantastic video. Keep them coming as I have watched every one and learned a little from each. Karl..

Always makes it nice to see how something is done to salt (no pun intended!) away for future use! TNX for taking the time to share your repair techniques. 73 - Dino KL0S

I was watching some other RU-vid videos about removing rust from metal with vinegar and then finishing off with baking soda. The vinegar did a very nice job on the rust! Enjoyed your video and the wafer switches looked really clean! Thanks, Buddy!

Buddy, I hope you're doing alright with the aftermath of Matthew. Hang in there. I have an old signal generator, and your Eico videos has inspired me to restore. It has a wafer switch that won't even move. I know what I'm going to be doing this weekend.

Amazing, especially when the parts are not made anymore. Thank you for the service tips to keep serviceable equipment humming.

Buddy, outstanding repair video. I think all of us who repair vintage gear have run into dirty and corroded wafer switches. You have given us new hope for the repair and cleaning of those wafer switches. Thank you for your time and knowledge and sharing with us. Happy holidays to you and yours. Joel

Your formula worked great. I now have a new looking switch that was tarnished and covered with rosin on contacts and ceramic wafer.

Love working on kenwood hybrids. Can’t believe I haven’t see this video before!! Great job. Thanks.

I also use the screws that attach hard/DVD drives to their computer trays. A really good video I picked up a few nuggets. Thanks. :)

Pretty hard-core to take those all apart, but sometimes you need to. Thanks for the cleaning tips. Great info!

Have been hanging for a video on this,...sweet

I really enjoy all of your videos...especially the Kenwood TS-520 series! I love my 520SE and after a few years of bringing it back to life have it back in service except for a few odds and ends that need fixing. I love this Radio! :)

Great video Buddy and some excellent tips for oldies & newbies excellent presentation as always

Although silver oxide might be considered a conductor, and perhaps perfectly okay at radio frequencies in particular ??, silver plated switches with oxidation on them will absolutely definitely cause intermittent audio channels, noise, and distortion. My electrical engineer boss tells me that silver oxide has a diode rectifier effect. Anyway, if spraying the switch with some Deoxit or similar cleaner ---- (I prefer to use a syringe or pinpoint oiler which is far less messy and less wasteful) ---- doesn't get it working reliably, I will shape a pencil eraser or ink eraser into a wedge tip or chisel tip, reach in there, and carefully clean the track. I have also used ultra-thin ultra fine plastic- backed crocus cloth type sandpaper slipped between the track and the switch fingers and worked back and forth to clean the switch finger. I have also used a fiberglass bristle scratch brush to do the same, although that's a little more abrasive than the pencil eraser. If, and that's a big if , you can get at the contacts on the switch wafers, you can usually clean / polish them with the pencil eraser or scratch brush. Liquid cleaners aren't or won't be necessary except for spraying them with a pure degreasing solvent that leaves no residue and no lubrication, alcohol or some alcohol mix for flushing circuit boards and removing rosin will usually do the trick. And I will mention here that you should never simply spray or squirt contact cleaners of any kind into the switches of a tube tester, you might well cause conductive leakage paths and ruin it permanently.

Wow Buddy I missed an excellent video. Lucky that I found it at least. Thanks for sharing this great tip! Take care my friend 73

Nicotine, tar an ash from a 60 a day smoker who chain smoked in the room. I have replaced fingers before, yes it is fiddly, but the donor switch is always useful, and remember to check the lower contact is also tensioned, but that is easy with 2 dental picks.. If it does not want to unsolder simply cut the wires flush with the switch, there normally is enough slack to join again, or room to have a sleeved splice a little away. Will try the vinegar and salt next time, I generally used to use some fine polishing paste to clean the track, and then rely on the application of a copper safe grease as protection.

Excellent tips, I have adapted all materials suggested in his video for ingredients I could find in local shops of my country. The result was the same. I felt a little silly to be spending so much money on Deoxite, Quimox and other expensive products. Thank you for sharing 73 DE PU2SRZ

Best method I've seen. Many thanks.

outstanding sir! best of them all, very thorough. 73!

In another one of your videos you used a brush to clean the female contacts on an 8 pin octal socket. You told me where to purchase these brushes but I lost the name and contact information. Could you send it along once again, please? Great videos by the way. Excellent teaching media. Double thumbs up once again!

Waooooo, no more words to say!! You helped me out so much with this cleaning trick!

excellent job, very helpful and informative video, perhaps the best yet, i don't know how i missed this when you first posted it, but i found it now, good job bro,

That was excellent! I shall use that salt and vinegar method when I next have some wafer switches to clean on my valve sets.

Great tips as usual! Thank you for sharing this with us all!

Good stuff as usual Buddy. That last switch looks very similar to the one on your IFR that you fixed recently. Keep up the good work. 73, Bill.

Vinegar cleaned big blobs of rust off my brake rotors too! I could hardly believe it. I was great and cheap too.

Excellent video. I brush and clean with a tootbrush but this is an outstanding solution. Next time i give it a try. Keep the video's coming. I wish you and your family happy easter. This is a nice easter egg hi. See next time. Best 73

I wonder if the salt and vinegar wouldn't work even better in an ultrasonic cleaner?

Wow, this was great.

Good point on the wd40. wd40 actually makes for a pretty sub par lubricant.

You are an artist ! Good Job.

going to try a old rotary switch. Feel like I am watching Burt Gummer when you start talking house hold products. The only thing I am going to do differently is put them in a ultrasonic with the cleaning solution (heated).

This was very helpful 👍🏽👍🏽

I watched this again, Thanks again Buddy.

Thanks for that tip on the cleaning solution!

Great job Buddy.I did know about the cb channel selector,but the wafer's were a new one for me.Tnx.73 kn4u

The tarnishing of silver is predominantly sulfidation, not oxidation. Sulfidation can of course come from various sources, but sweat is a primary source in domestic environment.

If you do not have those small mic socket screws grab a dead hard drive, the top mounting screws ( though you will need a Torx driver to use them though) are similar in size. Just be aware those screws are all stainless steel, so non magnetic.

Wonderful thank you so much for sharing this with us God bless you ilan 4x6MU Israel

great video. since the solution works pretty much hands free is there any reason (aside from getting to see things better) that the switches couldn't be soaked while still assembled?

Very helpful. I just Subscribed.

Verry usefull video good explaination thanks !

Thank you very much

I'm wondering if you put that tub in an ultrasonic jewelry cleaner if it would work any faster / better?

I have to say I’m impressed. The solution cleaned them up nicely. I am working on an SB-200 and the band switch is pretty clapped out. Your #3 switch is identical to the one I need. Do you happen to know the part number or at least what model Dentron it came out of? Maybe I’ll have some more luck finding one in the wild with more info. Thanks!

Thank you nice job . 73 28:41

Great job Buddy Thanks much Old dude

Hey Buddy! Found my old YT account and subbed to your channel. Had to as you are disappearing from the zed for a while. I'll keep an eye on your work and update to my thread if I can. Keep up the good work. Sean

Totally Awesome!

nice workkeep going

Thank you. Very helpful.

Awesome, thanks for sharing!

nice one Buddy some great tips there. thanks mate.

Really Awesome!

Excellent work and video. Would this method work for frozen pots? Thanks

EXCELLENT !!!!

I imagine soaking one of these wafer switches that's made from a fibrous material would be unadvisable. I've got a heathkit wafer switch that is really corroded.

That was brilliant, I'm off to clean some dicky switches now. Many Thanks. G0WZB

Amazing

I'm working on an old fisher R200B and the band switch is black on every single contact, and it dont work at all, faint noise on fm but can't tune anything, am and sw are stone dead, im thinking this is what I'll have to do. Contact cleaner didn't do much

NOW THAT'S A SWITCH!

i use 50 50 clr and water clr cleaner kg6mn

😃👍

Eek, double post. About the grime on the switch, I have seen that when the device has lived in a room off a kitchen. That is if it is not tobacco!

Can the vinegar salt solution be brushed on? Or does it have to soak?

Great Video Buddy :)

I thought the black on the rotor was Silver Oxide and a conductor?

Use WD-40 Contact Cleaner & WD-40 Gel *NOT* WD-40

Great video. Would like to contact you.

yellow from someone spraying oil on the switch my guess