WD-40 abuse
Mel,
I read your response about WD-40 and it made a memory come back that should add to your list of WD-40 abuses. I'm still smiling while typing this. In about 1985 I worked for a small avionics shop and the owner was a master with the old Narco Mark 12 tube radios and there were still a good amount of people flying with them. When they would come in and leave their radios he would walk them out into the hanger and submerge them completely into an ultrisonic bath of hot WD-40. The radio would just cook overnight and get vibrated gently. The next morning he would hang the radio over the tank to let it drip the majority of the chemical off, then blast it with compressed air, wipe it down, and into the lab it went. As the tubes heated up in the radio after powering it up on the bench the smell in the shop was fantastic. All intermittent problems were gone forever, a crystal or two replaced and the deed was done. There was nothing that could get the slime off of the faceplate or out of the sleeve over the wire harness, but boy did they work great after his treatment! I remember thinking that somebody was eventually going to get really mad when they got their radio back and it was shiny and wet and smelly, but his reputation was one of "Tron God" when it came to the old radios. They came from everywhere for this. There were also a lot of airplanes on the field that when I would open the doors to pull a transponder or something smelled of WD-40. He was quite a character. In the lobby he had a sign that read "It has been said that for every radio a technician fixed right he loses one hair from his head." He would sit at his desk under this sign with the light shining off of his head completely void of hair.
Blue Skies,
Bryan 9A "Flyin The Flag"
