shwnwllms
1000+ Head-Fier
Gave my Pendant SE a tune up (and both the amp and myself are alive and kicking)I would never spray Deoxit (or any other liquid) directly into a socket. There will be a lot of tiny metal particles in each contact that have been scraped off the tube pins as tubes are swapped, and spraying into the socket just washes all those little conductive bits right into the amp (or worse, all over the circuit board if that's how the tube sockets are connected). For octal sockets, I spray Deoxit D5 onto a pipe cleaner, and then insert that into the socket. Let it sit for 5 minutes after application, and then follow with isopropyl alcohol (pipe cleaner dipped in the bottle with excess squeezed off). This removes the crud the Deoxit loosened up, and also removes any residual Deoxit. If you try the pipe cleaner method, the first time you do it the end of that pipe cleaner will come back almost black. Probably some generic dirt there, but mostly comprised of those tiny metal particles.
Fo noval sockets, these work well with the same process:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073ZLNZ7G/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The kit you linked has Deoxit D25 which is a 25% solution with a brush-on applicator. When using pipe cleaners, I prefer Deoxit D5 (5% solution) that comes in a spray can as it's fairly easy to get just the right amount on the end of the pipe cleaner. But that's just personal preference...
https://www.amazon.com/Hosa-D5S-6-DeoxIT-Contact-Cleaner/dp/B00006LVEU/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1OC5NFPSIAWEM&keywords=deoxit&qid=1679092174&s=musical-instruments&sprefix=deoxit,mi,102&sr=1-2
Went with your method, except I only used 99.9% pure isopropyl to begin with (bought some of the 5% DeoxIT just to have on hand though). Sockets themselves were not that dirty, which is on par for what I expected from @Wes S
I did take the opportunity to re-tension the rectifier socket (which may have been the source of my noise after all since half of them were loose and required an adjustment)
Everything is clean, right & tight and I didn’t electrocute myself of blow a fuse or a NOS tube. I’ll count that as a win. (Hopefully I won’t need to mess with it for awhile now)
Thanks for the tip!