Had the day off while we waited for my son's corona PCR test (he had a fever and cough etc for the last two days), thankfully he came back negative, but while I was sitting around I got a bit bored so I chopped open the Bourns pots on a spare TDS scope front panel and gave them a good clean out and deoxit treatment.
Because I can't heat-stake the pots closed again, a drop of superglue on each spot had them all sealed up again.
Once it was swapped into my TDS784C, the controls are all buttery smooth again, so I claim success.
The TDS784C was a bit scratchy on the H and V position controls, but I didn't want to risk a known good control panel (have you seen how much people ask for them second hand??!?) so I tried on a spare board first.
Now I know how to rebuild these pots, it's simple to do any that need it in the future.
Basically, after you desolder the pot from the PCB, use some surface-cut side cutters to snip off the 4 heat staked posts on the back.
Open it up, clean it out with isopropyl alcohol and reapply some plastic-safe white grease and a little deoxit to the carbon track (I use a few small drops of the D100 stuff)
Then clip it closed with some pegs or binding clips or similar to hold it closed and put a drop of superglue on each post followed by a quick blast of superglue activator.
Easy.
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