On 8/26/12 5:03 PM, Mike Hyder -N4NT- wrote:
> Cramolin was manufactured by Caig Laboratories. Ten-Tec used two iterations,
> the Red can was the contact cleaner and the Blue can was the
> lubricant/preservative. They still make similar stuff.
The official story is a little different. I'm not saying you are wrong,
just that what's on the website disagrees. :-)
Cramolin was made in Germany and sold in the US by Caig. There are many
versions of what happened on the web, some say it was prohibited from
being sold in the US, some say it was prohibited from being shipped by
air after 9/11 and therefore became too expensive to import, some say
Caig and the manufacturer "went different ways".
It really does not matter in the end Cramolin is still sold (and I
assume made) in Germany and you can get small amounts at ridiculous
prices shipped to you. I think you can find it on eBay.
Caig produces something close called DeOxit. They have a whole line of
products and it confuses me, so I'll stock with the ones I do.
The red stuff is called Deoxit, and it's sold in little tubes for around
$6 and bottles. It is conductive and really does clean contacts. There
has been a lot of speculation of what is in it, probably mostly oxalic
acid, which is if I remember correctly refined peanut oil.
A tiny amount on the end of a toothpick or cotton swab works well and
you need to dry it after using it.
They also make other forms of it I have never used it. I doubt that a
bottle will last a really long time, I'm almost out of my first tube and
it was bought 2 years ago. YMMV.
I like the tubes because a vendor can pop 3 of them in a regular
envelope and they will arrive here in Israel in a week for about $5 in
postage. If you have ever bought anything from the US in the last few
years and had it shipped overseas you know what a bargain that is.
They also make a green liquid called "fader lube" which is a fancy term
for pot(entiomiter) grease. It works great on sticky controls, but I
have found a combination of a drop of the red deoxit and then the green
fix a lot more controls than either alone. Sometimes I have had to
repeat it but I would not put on more than a drop each at a time.
There are also contact stabilizers, one gold and one another color. I
use the gold (yellow) one occasionally. Usually to make tight RCA plugs
go in and out better. It's supposed to be used AFTER cleaning and is
claimed to prevent further oxidation.
While I am at it, I should mention there are competing products from the
UK called Servicsol (or something like it) and one from Canada call
Stabilant-22.
Stabilant-22 is (or was) sold by Motorola to fix contact problems in the
Maxtrac and later radios. It comes in a very small bottle for about $80,
but you dilute it with a lot of isopropal (sp?) alcohol.
I've never used it, I could not see buying it based on my needs and the
DeOxit red worked so well, partially because of the cost and the cost of
the alcohol.
Note that I don't use the spray. This has forced me to take some things
partially apart I would not have had to if I did, but to me it's like
using a garden hose to wash something I only wanted to dampen.
Geoff.
--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, N3OWJ/4X1GM/KBUH7245/KBUW5379
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