cleaning circuit contacts

[Ben Pfaff]

"Alan Garrison" <aeg@lbwl.com> writes:

> I don't think plain tap water will work, since it may discharge
> any charge build up in capacitors (?, I'm guessing here).
 
First of all, I agree with what Ed said.  But I'm a little
confused about why you're concerned about discharging caps.  If
you're worried about shorting them out, etc., then just short
them to ground by hand to clear out their charge.  I used to do
this when I was working on TV sets[1]: take a very long
screwdriver, attach an alligator clip to the blade on one end and
to a grounded object (i.e., metal chassis of a computer or other
3-prong grounded appliance), then touch the tip of the
screwdriver blade to each contact of the caps in turn.

[1] Don't ever open up a TV set or a computer monitor unless
you know what you're doing or you're suicidal.  Those caps can
*KILL* you.  I am not making this up.