[willne1]

Whats the best way to clean the center (banana plug) hole on a silver five way binding post? Anything I might have around the house would be nice.

Thanks
Willne1

 

[Uncle Erik]

If it's silver, a little Brasso on a Q-Tip would polish it. Use some dry Q-Tips to get out the residue after.

 

[Nemo de Monet]

I wouldn't bother; one of the nice things about silver, electrically speaking, is that its oxide is quite electrically conductive. I'm a jeweler, and I don't have anything that would easily clean the hole on a binding post. Anything you "might have around the house" is probably going to be unnecessarily abrasive (emery board, sandpaper, et cetera), or leave a residue behind that's even harder to remove than the tarnish (any kind of metal polish, kitchen cleanser, or whatever with a pipe-cleaner, q-tip, or toothpick, for example)... or both!

It's silver; it reacts to sulfur in the air, and oxidizes. C'est la vie.

If it really bothers you that much, get a "Sunshine Cloth" - they're a buck or two on eBay, and are the absolute best polishing cloth for precious metals out there, bar none - and figure out some way to get it, or a piece of it, into the hole on your binding post. Or replace the post with one that's gold- or rhodium-plated, and thus won't discolor.

 

[willne1]

If it doesn't affect the conductivity I won't bother. I'm not sure it's silver it might be an alloy, not that it matters I don't know.

 

[NightOwl]

It might be nickel or rhodium plated since silver binding posts are rarely stock and usually after-market. De-Oxit would work. Also electrical contact cleaner available from automotive departments. If it's not oxidized too bad and you have to make do with something in the house, you might try household ammonia which some coin collectors use to clean nickels. Plugging in and unplugging the bananas several times will also rub off a lot of the oxide.

Oxidation would only matter if the posts are nickel plated.

 

[Zerius]

try using the redox reaction of silver and aluminum in some salt water, it would clear the silver oxide straight off, this should be easy and found on google, somewhere

 

[ruknd]

I would not put any polishing compound on them for fear of leaving a residue. Just use a scotch brite pad and be gentle.

BTW this is my first post (as if I need another forum to be on).