[sdiy] Slide pot cleaning

[Jacob Watters]

A very important thing to keep in mind is to not use any chemical on the
carbon pad on the inside bottom of the slider. You can wear it off by doing
that. Just use a dry cleaning swab to wipe off the dust. You can use
alcohol on the rest of the parts.

*Jacob Watters*
JacobWatters.com <http://jacobwatters.com/>


On Tue, Apr 28, 2026 at 8:37 AM H.Sergio Alves via Synth-diy <
synth-diy at synth-diy.org> wrote:

> 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,
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