How to clean oxidized banana plugs?

[Boomzilla]

I have some speaker wires from England, a brand called “Ixos.” The banana plugs on the wires are silver-plated, and (as silver will) have oxidized over the years. I could chemically clean them, but I’m not sure what the chemicals might do to the solder.

I could lightly sand them, but I might damage the silver plating (that I assume to be of absolutely minimal thickness).

My best guess is to use “Nevr-Dull” to clean the plug surfaces - that won’t affect the soldering and will remove the silver oxide without significantly thinning the plating layer.

Has anyone a better idea? My other option would be to unsolder (or cut off) and discard the banana plugs, reverting to bare wire.

Thanks - Boom

[cawgijoe]

May 29, 2023 0:34:54 GMT -5 Boomzilla said:

I have some speaker wires from England, a brand called “Ixos.” The banana plugs on the wires are silver-plated, and (as silver will) have oxidized over the years. I could chemically clean them, but I’m not sure what the chemicals might do to the solder.

I could lightly sand them, but I might damage the silver plating (that I assume to be of absolutely minimal thickness).

My best guess is to use “Nevr-Dull” to clean the plug surfaces - that won’t affect the soldering and will remove the silver oxide without significantly thinning the plating layer.

Has anyone a better idea? My other option would be to unsolder (or cut off) and discard the banana plugs, reverting to bare wire.

Thanks - Boom

I’ve used my wife’s silver cleaner meant for silverware or any other silver product and it works great. Don’t remember the brand.

[marcl]

May 29, 2023 0:34:54 GMT -5 Boomzilla said:

I have some speaker wires from England, a brand called “Ixos.” The banana plugs on the wires are silver-plated, and (as silver will) have oxidized over the years. I could chemically clean them, but I’m not sure what the chemicals might do to the solder.

I could lightly sand them, but I might damage the silver plating (that I assume to be of absolutely minimal thickness).

My best guess is to use “Nevr-Dull” to clean the plug surfaces - that won’t affect the soldering and will remove the silver oxide without significantly thinning the plating layer.

Has anyone a better idea? My other option would be to unsolder (or cut off) and discard the banana plugs, reverting to bare wire.

Thanks - Boom

General rule is never use anything abrasive on a plated contact ... not even the proverbial pencil eraser.  The reason is that plated surfaces have tiny pores where the base metal may be exposed, and if they have any sharp edges it can be exposed at the corners too.  If you use something abrasive, it will chip away more tiny bits of plating and expose more of the base metal.  So it's always best to use a solvent that's made for cleaning contacts, and something soft like a Q-tip.

Especially true for gold plated contacts on a copper substrate.  The copper being the reactive metal.  Even with the nickel layer under the gold there can still be pores or tiny edges exposed down to the copper.

[405x5]

The answer here is exactly the same as for your other thread regarding outdoor wires, corrosion discoloration, etc.

All of these electrical parts you want to clean are cheap. If for some reason you don’t like the way they look simply replace them. Trying to clean them is nothing but opening up a can of worms. The real trick is to stop corrosion or discoloration from happening in the first place and that means weather tight boxes you can get them in all different kinds of flavors but here are a few examples. 

[KeithL]

Silver plating is generally extremely thin and silver itself is not especially hard either.
Any sort of sanding or abrasive will definitely go right through the plating.
If they haven't been cleaned in many years you may also find that there is no plating left.
(Silver does oxidize... but sulfur does a much worse job on it... and can eat completely through it in a few decades... especially if you live near a highway.)

Solder, especially the old lead type, is chemically quite inert...
But you do not want chemicals finding their way up inside the insulation where they will corrode the wire further over time...
Nevr-Dull is pretty safe.

As someone else alluded...
Banana plugs are quite cheap so you could cut the old ones off and put on new ones...
(Bare wire is fine too.)

May 29, 2023 0:34:54 GMT -5 Boomzilla said:

I have some speaker wires from England, a brand called “Ixos.” The banana plugs on the wires are silver-plated, and (as silver will) have oxidized over the years. I could chemically clean them, but I’m not sure what the chemicals might do to the solder.

I could lightly sand them, but I might damage the silver plating (that I assume to be of absolutely minimal thickness).

My best guess is to use “Nevr-Dull” to clean the plug surfaces - that won’t affect the soldering and will remove the silver oxide without significantly thinning the plating layer.

Has anyone a better idea? My other option would be to unsolder (or cut off) and discard the banana plugs, reverting to bare wire.

Thanks - Boom