[sdiy] Slide pot cleaning

[H.Sergio Alves]

Why haven’t you vacuum right after taking it out from under the bed? That
would have saved you a lot of work… I remember fixing one many years ago
and the faders weren’t that bad to take apart, clean with 70%IPA (so it
won’t damage the tracks) and it worked nicely. It was a fair amount of
hours tho… i did replace that crumbling foam entirely with a thin layer of
black felt (almost as thin as see through). Client never complained (and
did sent more stuff to fix). Best of luck and lots of patience ;)

On Tue, 28 Apr 2026 at 13:27, Mike Bryant <mbryant at futurehorizons.com>
wrote:

> Felt makes a good shield for faders.
>
> But unfortunately unless they are the really expensive P&G or similar
> ones, taking them apart will most probably actually make things worse.  We
> did use to have a spray for cleaning sliders but I think it got banned
> around 2005
>
> Best bet is to buy new ones of the same size.
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Synth-diy <synth-diy-bounces at synth-diy.org> on behalf of
> rburnett at richieburnett.co.uk <rburnett at richieburnett.co.uk>
> *Sent:* 28 April 2026 12:53
> *To:* Synth Diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
> *Subject:* [sdiy] Slide pot cleaning
>
> Can anyone recommend a good process for cleaning dust our of slide
> potentiometers on an old Roland SH-09?
>
> The synth was stored underneath a bed in the spare room when we moved
> house about ten years ago, and I *thought* it had a dust cover over it!
> It turns out it didn't (>.<)  and the slide pots are in quite bad shape
> now.
>
> The synth is functional but the sliders feel scratchy and there is
> obviously intermittent electrical contact because cutoff, LFO rate, etc
> jump around a lot when the sliders are adjusted.  The slide switches are
> okay, and the keys aren't too bad after a bit of use.
>
> I've removed the front panel and also found that there is some sort of
> black felt/foam sheet that was obviously originally meant to be a dust
> shield for the slide pots.  The problem is that this material has become
> brittle and literally crumbles upon touching.  Can anyone recommend a
> good material to replace this with?
>
> If I can fix the pots with a squirt of some magic spray that would be
> fantastic, but I'm also prepared to de-solder then and carefully open
> them up for cleaning if that is what is required.  I would rather take
> time to do the job properly, but not sure what is the best way to
> proceed?  I have access to a dry compressed-air line, dish soap, cotton
> buds, Isopropyl alcohol, acetone, silicone grease,
> soldering/de-soldering tools, etc, but don't want to risk making the
> problem worse without asking for advice first.
>
> Thanks in advance for any advice,
>
> -Richie,
> ________________________________________________________
> This is the Synth-diy mailing list
> Submit email to: Synth-diy at synth-diy.org
> View archive at: https://synth-diy.org/pipermail/synth-diy/
> Check your settings at: https://synth-diy.org/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy
> Selling or trading? Use marketplace at synth-diy.org
> ________________________________________________________
> This is the Synth-diy mailing list
> Submit email to: Synth-diy at synth-diy.org
> View archive at: https://synth-diy.org/pipermail/synth-diy/
> Check your settings at: https://synth-diy.org/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy
> Selling or trading? Use marketplace at synth-diy.org
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://synth-diy.org/pipermail/synth-diy/attachments/20260428/9410f0a6/attachment.htm>