is there a way to rebuild volume control pots?

[powesmith]

Hi,
I am a proud owner of the Akai GX-635. The unit works fine with the
exception of the recording level and output level pots. They are very
temperamental. I tried cleaning them with the contact cleaner (without
disassembling them) with no good results. I would love to replace
them, but having very hard time finding the new parts. Was wondering
if someone could recommend a source for the replacement parts or
recommend a method for rebuilding them. Thank you.

Alex

[GregS[_3_]]

In article >, powesmith > wrote:
>Hi,
>I am a proud owner of the Akai GX-635. The unit works fine with the
>exception of the recording level and output level pots. They are very
>temperamental. I tried cleaning them with the contact cleaner (without
>disassembling them) with no good results. I would love to replace
>them, but having very hard time finding the new parts. Was wondering
>if someone could recommend a source for the replacement parts or
>recommend a method for rebuilding them. Thank you.
>
>Alex

Sometimes it just impossible to rebuild. Before you take them apart,
did you use a good cleaner like alcohol, then lub with Caig Faderlube ?

greg

[powesmith]

Greg,
Thanks for the reply. Do I have to take them apart to clean? So far
all I just sprayed the contact cleaner down the shaft.

[GregS[_3_]]

In article >, powesmith > wrote:
>Greg,
>Thanks for the reply. Do I have to take them apart to clean? So far
>all I just sprayed the contact cleaner down the shaft.

You have to get it from the back. Sometimes it helps from the front, but
then it may also messes with the shaft lube. Most pots have holes in them. Sometimes
I have to pry them apart or drill holes to get in there.

greg

[powesmith]

On Aug 8, 12:28*pm, (GregS) wrote:
> In article >, powesmith > wrote:
>
> >Greg,
> >Thanks for the reply. Do I have to take them apart to clean? So far
> >all I just sprayed the contact cleaner down the shaft.
>
> You have to get it from the back. Sometimes it helps from the front, but
> then it may also messes with the shaft lube. Most pots have holes in them.. Sometimes
> I have to pry them apart or drill holes to get in there.
>
> greg

thank you

[Eeyore]

powesmith wrote:

> Greg,
> Thanks for the reply. Do I have to take them apart to clean?

The only way. It does sometimes work. It also requires infinite care.
Rememeber to re-lube with a suitable grease, at the least silicone
grease, but sparingly.

However if the track itself is badly worn, you're chasing shadows. See
if you find something that'll fit in its place.

Graham

[Eeyore]

powesmith wrote:

> Greg,
> Thanks for the reply. Do I have to take them apart to clean? So far
> all I just sprayed the contact cleaner down the shaft.

Which brings dirt and dust INTO the mechanism.

Graham

[Tony[_11_]]

On Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:58:03 +0100, Eeyore > wrote:
>powesmith wrote:
>
>> Greg,
>> Thanks for the reply. Do I have to take them apart to clean?
>
>The only way. It does sometimes work. It also requires infinite care.
>Rememeber to re-lube with a suitable grease, at the least silicone
>grease, but sparingly.
>
>However if the track itself is badly worn, you're chasing shadows. See
>if you find something that'll fit in its place.
>
>Graham

Agreed, but with reservations about the silicone grease (which can "creep" over adjacent
surfaces); the appropriate "Electrolube" or similar product should be fine. Once you've
sprayed down the shaft, you MUST take it apart, if only to remove the shaft grease you put
on the pot track. As Graham said, the track might be too worn; but even then, it may still
be possible to bend the wipers slightly to run on a different part of the element.

I wish I'd spent more time with my GX635D back in the day. I even had a custom interface
box that gave made it more like a 4 track that a "surround stereo" thingy. But by the time
I started getting into audio production digital was on the horizon, and I sold the GX for
almost nothing. Now it's just a memory, along with my old Hofner violin bass, 3/4
Rickenbacker, Gibson 335, ... <sigh>

[isw]

In article
>,
powesmith > wrote:

> Hi,
> I am a proud owner of the Akai GX-635. The unit works fine with the
> exception of the recording level and output level pots. They are very
> temperamental. I tried cleaning them with the contact cleaner (without
> disassembling them) with no good results. I would love to replace
> them, but having very hard time finding the new parts. Was wondering
> if someone could recommend a source for the replacement parts or
> recommend a method for rebuilding them. Thank you.

Leaky capacitors can make for noisy pots, when it really isn't the fault
of the pot at all.

Isaac

[Chris Hornbeck]

On Fri, 8 Aug 2008 05:32:31 -0700 (PDT), powesmith
> wrote:

>I am a proud owner of the Akai GX-635. The unit works fine with the
>exception of the recording level and output level pots. They are very
>temperamental. I tried cleaning them with the contact cleaner (without
>disassembling them) with no good results. I would love to replace
>them, but having very hard time finding the new parts. Was wondering
>if someone could recommend a source for the replacement parts or
>recommend a method for rebuilding them. Thank you.

Several good responses already, but just to be fersure-fersure,
are you familiar with the standard-good-ole-fashioned-reg'lar-
rabbit ways of cleaning controls?

Not wishing to offend, but it's a topic that many, many folks
under the age of maybe 40 have mercifully been spared the
sausage-making details. If so, lucky you, but do post back if
said gruesome details aren't obvious (as gruesome details tend so
oft' to be).


WRT rebuilding controls: ain't gonna happen. Parts and labor total
up to about a gazillion times as much as a replacement part, and...

There aren't any replacement parts. Grieving time is now over. And
we move on. Bup-bup-bup. Controls and switches are *cleaned*, a
process that includes lubrication. My recommendation is something in
the Caig MCL family. The names have changed over the years, but
their products have consistently performed miracles.


But independent of era and brand, *any* contact cleaner must,
by definition, clean the actual wiping contacts. So must be
physically, up-front-and-personally, in-yer-face squirted onto
the actual contact surfaces.

If you can't figure how to arrange this, you'll need to hire
somebody to do the gig. Probably not impossible, because folks
do this every day of the world. But I suspect that you can dig
deep enough to see the back sides of these controls, especially
on such an old-timer as an Akai, and you'll see the classic holes
in all classic controls that folks have used, time immemoriable,
for the purpose.

One opens up the chassis of one's beloved, applies lubrication,
and, well, you'll just have to extemporize from there. Lubricate,
manipulate to both extremes, repeat a few times, hope for the
best.

If you're really in love it'll show; if not, nothing will save
your sorry ass - go forth and do something else.

But I digress (sorry; I felt anything less would be disrespectful).
Metal-to-metal and metal-to-carbon-track contacts living in
room air are a stone bitch. Periodic refresh is as important
as software refresh in current terms - complex things degrade,
yada, yada. We neglect entropy at our peril, but this is a
much more trivial case.



If posted and referenced responses don't help, post back. This is a
kinda thing that's completely obvious once you're seen it, but pretty
obscure until then. Like a whole lot of the real world. In this case,
we squirt some fluid, wiggle around, and declare victory. What
straight male can claim to be ignorant of the process? Arf.

All the best fortune,
Chis Hornbeck


All the best fortune,
Chris Hornbeck

[Chronic Philharmonic]

"Chris Hornbeck" > wrote in message
...
> On Fri, 8 Aug 2008 05:32:31 -0700 (PDT), powesmith
> > wrote:
>

[snippage]

> There aren't any replacement parts. Grieving time is now over. And
> we move on. Bup-bup-bup. Controls and switches are *cleaned*, a
> process that includes lubrication. My recommendation is something in
> the Caig MCL family. The names have changed over the years, but
> their products have consistently performed miracles.

Yep, the Caig products are excellent. I used them to get wafer switches
working again. It didn't last forever in the 1960s era broadcast mixing
console that I was charged with maintaining, but every few months the DJs
would say a switch was cutting out. One squirt with Caig Cramolin (as they
used to call it), and some switch aerobics, and it would be good to go. I
couldn't replace the switches; they were out of print. I had to fix them.

Cramolin was also good for making the old 600-ohm stepped attenuators stop
"zippering" when you rotated them.

[snippage]

[Eeyore]

Tony wrote:

> Eeyore wrote:
> >powesmith wrote:
> >> Greg,
> >> Thanks for the reply. Do I have to take them apart to clean?
> >
> >The only way. It does sometimes work. It also requires infinite care.
> >Rememeber to re-lube with a suitable grease, at the least silicone
> >grease, but sparingly.
> >
> >However if the track itself is badly worn, you're chasing shadows. See
> >if you find something that'll fit in its place.
>
>
> Agreed, but with reservations about the silicone grease (which can "creep" over adjacent
> surfaces); the appropriate "Electrolube" or similar product should be fine.

Which product would that be. Wipers are always lightly greased IME.

> Once you've sprayed down the shaft, you MUST take it apart, if only to remove the shaft
> grease you put on the pot track

Exactly. So dismantling *carefully* makes as much sense.


> . As Graham said, the track might be too worn; but even then, it may still
> be possible to bend the wipers slightly to run on a different part of the element.

Possible sure. But we're almost into watchmaker territory here !

In short, it's often do-able, provided the pot will dismantle easily. I have done it myself so
I can attest to its effectiveness. More modern miniature pots, forget it.

Graham

[Eeyore]

isw wrote:

> powesmith > wrote:
>
> > I am a proud owner of the Akai GX-635. The unit works fine with the
> > exception of the recording level and output level pots. They are very
> > temperamental. I tried cleaning them with the contact cleaner (without
> > disassembling them) with no good results. I would love to replace
> > them, but having very hard time finding the new parts. Was wondering
> > if someone could recommend a source for the replacement parts or
> > recommend a method for rebuilding them. Thank you.
>
> Leaky capacitors can make for noisy pots, when it really isn't the fault
> of the pot at all.

Also true. Very likely after a period of storage with no use.

Graham

[Tony[_11_]]

On Sat, 09 Aug 2008 09:12:41 +0100, Eeyore > wrote:
>Tony wrote:
>> Eeyore wrote:
>> >powesmith wrote:
>> >> Greg,
>> >> Thanks for the reply. Do I have to take them apart to clean?
>> >
>> >The only way. It does sometimes work. It also requires infinite care.
>> >Rememeber to re-lube with a suitable grease, at the least silicone
>> >grease, but sparingly.
>> >
>> >However if the track itself is badly worn, you're chasing shadows. See
>> >if you find something that'll fit in its place.
>>
>>
>> Agreed, but with reservations about the silicone grease (which can "creep" over adjacent
>> surfaces); the appropriate "Electrolube" or similar product should be fine.
>
>Which product would that be. Wipers are always lightly greased IME.

Sorry - none of that around any more for me to check.

>> Once you've sprayed down the shaft, you MUST take it apart, if only to remove the shaft
>> grease you put on the pot track
>
>Exactly. So dismantling *carefully* makes as much sense.

More in fact. I was really just (unsuccessfully) implying it's NOT a good idea to spray
down the shaft.
>
>> . As Graham said, the track might be too worn; but even then, it may still
>> be possible to bend the wipers slightly to run on a different part of the element.
>
>Possible sure. But we're almost into watchmaker territory here !

I'm pretty klutzy, but I've done this a few times successfully. It is partly due to these
successes that one of my current projects is modifying an old Roland DG pen plotter to use
a laser diode to cut arbitrary tapers, discontinuities and detents into regular pots for
special custom guitar control applications.

Tony

[powesmith]

Caig MCL took care of all but one pot. I suppose I have to do some
more spraying. I did find openings in the back so I am good to
go.Thanks everyone for replies.

Alex