Mon Apr 26, 2021 6:15 pm
Ed,
I actually have never had to replace key contacts on any of my organ projects. Perhaps I am just lucky. Even on my 1960s era theater organ console, I was able to clean the wire and bus contacts well enough - and I wired three sets in parallel for redundancy.
I have never used chemicals on key contacts. Following the advise of an organ technician from decades ago, I use a minor abrasive to clean dirt of the rods to which the Rodgers gold-coated whiskers contact. I use the BACK (SMOOTH) SIDE of a small sheet of emory paper. If there is a lot of build up, I use the front side.
For my "new" 4-manual Rodgers, it came with a technician work session. The technician used a small needle file to do the same thing. All the keys work great despite the age of the organ.
Les