2. vintage
  3. 194006-19946

polishing pins of NOS tubes

I have some NOS tubes with corroded pins. I read that you can use a short brass brush to polish them. You can even attach a brass brush attachment to a dremel and spin it, but that would be a bad idea for me as I'm very clumsy and would most likely bend the pins.

So I ordered some short brass brushes from Amazon and gave it a go. There was essentially no corrosion removed after brushing one pin for 10 minutes.

The set includes a steel brush. I brushed a couple pins with that for 5 minutes and they got shiny! However I'm wondering if this can scratch the pin and actually degrade performance of the tube.

Anyone have a recommendation?

magon

Showing 1 response by thecarpathian

thecarpathian's avatar
thecarpathian
5,076 posts
 

I hope by ’corroded’ you mean ’tarnished’.

If that is what you mean, a small strip of metal cleaning/polishing cloth should work, followed by a cleaning with 91%+ alcohol.

Loop the cloth around a pin, pinch it with tweezers, and clean with an up and down motion. When nice and shiny (untarnished looking), pour the alcohol into its bottle cap or a bowl to pin depth and stick the pins in it. let it sit in it a bit, then take it out, dip the tip of a paper towel in, and repeat the tweezer thing, finishing with a dry paper towel.

A Dremel tool I think is best, get a polishing attachment and you won't have to go through all of the above!

 

 

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