[adydula]

I built a desktop version of NWavguys O2 amp which was referred to as the "ODA"...a good friend AGDR who was in contact with him alot during his hiatus back in the O2 days.....put together a design of what it might have looked like and there are about 7 or 8 of these ODA headphone amps out there...its not a beginners DUY project for sure and is costly upwards to $250 - $300 in parts, case, knobs, power supply etc and lots of tiny, tiny parts to solder.

The results I posted at diyaudio and this circle a few years back, four years if I remember correctly.

Well the volume pot for the past year has gotten scratchy in the area I set it to for listening...been driving me nuts, Its a small pot in a tight place and to remove it could cause damage to the amp circuit board and then I am out of luck...

Well I just got the courage to remove it, after I ordered a new one from Mouser.

Here are some pix of the destructive removal process!! 

I drilled several small 1/64" holes into the pot, carefully pulled it apart as best possible, taking care not to damage the surrounding parts...with a nice hot iron and solder wock and flux I was able to get most of the solder out
of the small holes, then it was a careful wiggle, tug and pull excercise and she popped out nicely.

No to get the new pot and install...anf hopefully we should be back in scratch freelistening for another 4 yrs+.

Always something!

Alex

[WC]

If it works, using contact cleaner would have been easier and maybe less expensive.

[adydula]

Your absolutely correct, but in this case the pot is sealed and no good way to get inside or to squirt some contact cleaner in it.

I do use contact cleaner on other pots that I can get into...Bottlehead stock pots are easy to use this method.

I also try the old rotate the pot a few hundred times and it sometimes cleans up the offending area..but in this case it stopped working as well.

The cost of this pot is a whopping $1.87!

So its not a whole lot of bucks for sure, also the quality of this pot probably is not the "best" in the world as well.

Anyhow there is a reason this pot was chosen for this application, and thats a looooong story in itself!

Alex

[adydula]

Update, the pot arrived a few minutes ago and I just soldered in...works great again, smooth velvery shaft movement.

Ah...life is good....

Only a $1.87 for the pot, $7.99 for shipping..

:>)

Alex

[timind]

Good to hear it's up and running quietly.

For future work though, get a Soldapullit. https://www.amazon.com/Edsyn-Deluxe-Soldapullt-Heavy-Vacuum/dp/B006GOKVKI/ref=sr_1_2?crid=MQXLCMJQ6F8V&keywords=soldapullt&qid=1559262017&s=gateway&sprefix=solda%2Celectronics%2C162&sr=8-2

Love mine.

[adydula]

Thanks for the recommendation, when I used to work for IBM in our test lab we had several high dollar de-soldering stations like the Hakko as well as many of these little blue soldpullits! We used them so much the white tips had to be replaced many times.

Most of the time if your iron is hot enough and add some flux to your solder wick it does the job.

I smiled when i saw this tool again!

Alex