Date:         Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:11:38 -0400
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Re: AFM track cleaning wisdom
Comments: To: "Mike \"Rocket J Squirrel\"" <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <4C631692.6030601@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 05:30 PM 8/11/2010 Wednesday, Mike \"Rocket J Squirrel\" wrote:
>I opened it once before, a few years ago, to move the wiper to a fresh
>bit of track. I'll open it again to clean the track.
>
>Is the pencil eraser trick good enough, or would it benefit to use some
>kinda cleaner?

I'd be very reluctant to use any sort of mechanical cleaning on
that.  More than reluctant; I flat wouldn't do it.  It's not like a
metal contact that can get dirty or corrode; it's more like a pencil
drawing.  I've used RS-type spray circuit cleaner on it with at least
slight improvement.

If you haven't done the capacitor fix, do it.  It will make up for a
good deal of AFM tiredness.  And stick a few volts across it (cable
unplugged, of course) and hook your scope to the wiper and either
end.  Exercise the vane slowly and look for dropouts.

Yours,
d