[HAM] WD-40 - Vibrato scanner - M-102 ??

[David Anderson]

David,

I've found that the solution depends in part on what the device in  
question has been oiled with over the years. Sometimes the sticky  
stuff comes off easily, and sometimes it's pretty persistent. It may  
be the case that the bearing ran dry at some point and the last oil  
on the surface got overheated from friction. In that case, rinsing  
that last oil out and re-oiling may do the job.

Denatured alcohol and naphtha should be available at your local  
hardware store. Just use something to squirt a bit in there. Then, I  
would turn the shaft by hand to aid in cleaning and flush it a bit  
more. Re-oil the bearing and give the oil some time to work its way  
into the bearing. Patience with bronze bearings is often rewarded. I  
read that in the factory, the manufacturers of bronze bearings  
immerse them in oil and use a vacuum to pull the air bubbles out and  
fill all the pores with oil.

The nastiest case I've run across was a Leslie horn bearing that had  
been over-oiled over the years with some horrible-smelling oil. I had  
to soak it in alcohol several times and blow it out with compressed  
air to clean it out, but when I was done, it worked like new.  The  
horn bearing is also one case where you can use air pressure to speed  
up the re-oiling process. You oil it and blow air into it, which  
forces the oil through the pores.

This is all similar to what Steve Leigh has done to revive tone  
generators with sticky bearings, so I should footnote him :-)

David

On Jun 27, 2008, at 1:36 AM, David Damroze wrote:

>   What you say makes sense to me regarding the porousness of the  
> bronze.
> It sounds like I need to take the scanner apart to clean it. I
> was hoping I could spray something in there to loosen it up and then
> re-oil it.
>    Could I just remove the screw at the bottom to allow the gunk to  
> run
> out without having
> to actually dismantle the vibrato ?
>    What are some products with denatured alcohol that are  
> appropriate to
> this application ?
>      I have dribbled a little Hammond oil in there and am giving the
> bracket a push with a screwdriver
> once in a while to try to loosen it. It does move with enough  
> pressure.
> Maybe after it sits over night.
>
>
>   DD
>
>