PREVENTING OXIDATION ON BRASS MAINS PLUG PINS?

[stargeezerme]

Hi

I was wondering if anyone knows of any products or methods to provide a seal against oxidation on power plug pins?

I'am referring to typical mains plugs that use brass for the pins. I plan to buy some plugs and make my own "high quality" power cords intended for audio equipment. I have bought plugs in the past and they come with the pins very dull and dirty.

I plan to clean the brass in a citric acid water mix using my ultrasonic cleaner, and when they come out I hope they will be nice and shiny without much effort, and im looking for a way to coat the surface that doesn't affect its conductivity and stops them going dull. I kinda mean something like laquer but obviously not laquer, Im aware of products such as brasso, Caig deoxit etc but as far as im aware they are just for cleaning and don't prevent oxidation.

If anyone can give me some advice on this, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks

[Don Hills]

Buy plugs with nickel plated pins. Or buy something like this:
De-Oxit Treated UK Mains Plug - Mains Cables R Us

[raudio1969]

I haven't done it myself yet, but you could look into electroless nickel plating.

- Richard

[epicyclic]

When i remove a plug from a socket i put those plastic protectors back on that you often get when you first buy them which helps to retard the oxidation .

[ChicagoJTW]

If you lacquer the brass, the connection won't be any good. Surface oxidation is very shallow and unlikely to adversely affect mains connections. There is no way to slow or prevent oxidation of copper or copper alloys without some form of coating over the base metal. You can nickel plate, but it's very challenging to do well without the proper equipment.

[stargeezerme]

Hi guys

Thanks for your responses....

Buy plugs with nickel plated pins. Or buy something like this:
De-Oxit Treated UK Mains Plug - Mains Cables R Us

I was looking at these type of plugs below ↓ , they look really good with a chunky cable and furutech iec...

I haven't done it myself yet, but you could look into electroless nickel plating.

- Richard

I'll look into that but it sounds expensive?

When i remove a plug from a socket i put those plastic protectors back on that you often get when you first buy them which helps to retard the oxidation .

Thats a good suggestion, as I plan to sell these plugs/power cables so it wouldn't hurt to include those.

I've just seen a product by deoxit called S5 contact protector which looks the sort of thing im after, but im suspicious that its just snake oil and its quite expensive...

I also plan to treat unswitched mains sockets in the same way as well, I got into all this before and ended up polishing the contact bits with brasso and cotton wool buds but it was really tedious.. But ive bought myself a fancy ultrasonic cleaner and various solutions which could make the task a lot easier. (edit - didn't buy it specifically for this task by the way, I offer the service of Chris King mountain bike hubs, and motorbike carbs etc)

Would a strong citric acid mix in water bring the pins up nice and shiney? Ive done it with a brass key before and it came out like new.

[stargeezerme]

Just had an idea.... what about using dielectric grease? I got a tube before for protecting the contacts on switches and stuff for my motorbike. Its called tune-up-grease or something like that and it was really expensive for such a small tube.

Would that work if i applied some and worked it in with a cloth and then wiped off?

[gootee]

Originally Posted by stargeezerme

Hi guys

<snipped>

I've just seen a product by deoxit called S5 contact protector which looks the sort of thing im after, but im suspicious that its just snake oil and its quite expensive...

Actually, DeOxit is a product of Caig. See caig.com - Home of DeoxIT - CAIG Laboratories, Inc. .

It is not snake oil, by any means. It's a wonderful product.

I'm not sure if it does exactly what you want but if used periodically it will probably have the effect that you are after.

I believe that Caig also has a protectant product.

[stargeezerme]

Sorry about the name confusion, I've seen another product called Rid-Ox Contact Protector and it states it contains polyphenyl ether.

I googled that and there was a page from Caig stating that it is an ingredient of their products...

[454Casull]

Buy plugs that have pins that are already plated with nickel, platinum, rhodium, gold, iridium, etc.

Out of curiosity, are you doing this for aesthetics or for some other reason?