I cleaned up the the speaker and re-installed it.
I then decided to clean up the bottom of the chassis a bit. Cleaning up the dirt, rosin splashes, etc. I was thinking how can I get down into the tight spots with my Q-Tips? Then I had the idea of making an extension. One thing about Q-Tips is that they bend when you're really trying to scrub something clean. My extension worked perfectly!
Here are the details.
I used a piece of 5/32 aluminum tubing by K&S. You can get the tubing at a hobby shop, or hardware store. Not sure if Lowe's or Home Depot has this stuff. I then used my round nosed pliers to crimp some detents. I crimped twice and the second set of crimps was 90 degrees to the first and about 3/8 between them. I cut a Q-Tip in half using my cutters and then I push the Q-Tip into the tubing. The detents hold the Q-Tip in place yet it is easily removed and another inserted. The aluminum tubing is small enough in diameter to get the Q-Tip down into some pretty small places.
Another thing I tried with my cleaning tool was to use some lacquer thinner to clean. I used acetone before but lacquer thinner works much better. From now on I'll use lacquer thinner to clean off the rosin on a newly soldered joint.
Here are some pics to show you what I mean.
A close up of the crimped end.
Q-Tips and tubing.
Ready to dip into the lacquer thinner!
