what's the best way to clean old electronics?

[Kaido]

the vintage amp I bought is kinda dusty and I don't think canned air is going to completely do the trick. what's safe to use to scrub the dust and crud out of electronic parts? wiring, boards, capacitor-looking thingies, etc.

text

the picture honestly doesn't do it justice. it's just plain grody in there!

 

[minendo]

swiffer

 

[LordMorpheus]

You say canned air isn't gonna help much, but . . .

Compressed air works wonders.

Brought my Sony STR-7065A back to life with it.



The thing is, as I understand, dust doesn't hurt electronics at all. A wire doesn't give a damn if there is dust covering it.

You just have to worry about the moving peices, like switches, potentiometers, etc.

Canned air should be enough to clean those out.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

dish washer. let it dry good before plugging it in.

 

[91TTZ]

Eat/lick the electronic components, as mentioned in another thread.

 

[jlee]

My compressor did wonders for my computer..

90psi > canned air (didn't want to go too much higher )

 

[WW]

electronics cleaner

 

[Eli]

I'd be curious to know myself.

Thankfully, my SCA-80Q is pretty much squeaky clean, but I have other vintage equipment that is damn dusty inside.

pic

It's probably not much of a problem, but technically dust insulates components and keeps them from dissipating heat effectivly, and it's also possible that a few stray electrons are finding their way through the dust to places they aren't supposed to go....

If I was going to take a guess, I would use a non-ESD stiff bristled brush along with compressed air.

 

[nageov3t]

vacume.

 

[Eli]

We're not talking about computer dust bunnies here guys.

This is stuff that has been caked on for 30+ years. It doesen't blow off with air, only physical disturbance.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Eli
We're not talking about computer dust bunnies here guys.

This is stuff that has been caked on for 30+ years. It doesen't blow off with air, only physical disturbance.

thank you!

ribbon13 recommend some cleaning materials for me the other day, so I went ahead and ordered the whole kit. deoxidizer, metal conditioner, and metal preservative chemicals in sprays and gels, with cleaning tools. a little pricey but I'm serious about cleaning up this amp. here's the link on PE:

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=341-246

I have some Novox to use for the aluminum I've only noticed one area with major scratches, which I'm hoping will come out, but we'll see. I'm going to start with the exterior next week.

but all that stuff is for the externior or moving parts on the exterior. I'm going to take it apart tomorrow and blow it out with compressed air. I might take some pics depending on how much gunk is in it.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Eli
I'd be curious to know myself.

Thankfully, my SCA-80Q is pretty much squeaky clean, but I have other vintage equipment that is damn dusty inside.

pic

It's probably not much of a problem, but technically dust insulates components and keeps them from dissipating heat effectivly, and it's also possible that a few stray electrons are finding their way through the dust to places they aren't supposed to go....

If I was going to take a guess, I would use a non-ESD stiff bristled brush along with compressed air.

that's the inside of your 80q??

<--- jealous

soon tho, mine will look like that

 

[shortylickens]

Back in the good old days you used to be able to get cans of compressed ether.
My dad had several. We used them all up and never found anymore.

 

[bret]

hot soapy water?

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: bret
hot soapy water?

With modern electronics, no problem, as long as you let it dry before plugging it back in....

I don't know about vintage stuff though. How do old phenolic boards react to getting wet?

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Eli
I'd be curious to know myself.

Thankfully, my SCA-80Q is pretty much squeaky clean, but I have other vintage equipment that is damn dusty inside.

pic

It's probably not much of a problem, but technically dust insulates components and keeps them from dissipating heat effectivly, and it's also possible that a few stray electrons are finding their way through the dust to places they aren't supposed to go....

If I was going to take a guess, I would use a non-ESD stiff bristled brush along with compressed air.

that's the inside of your 80q??

<--- jealous

soon tho, mine will look like that

Yeah, I got lucky. It was just cleaned up and rewired, some caps replaced, rectifier diodes replaced...

The guy sounded like he knows what he was doing, and with the free shipping with buy it now.. I couldn't resist, even though I was going to get a Dynaco Stereo 120 instead. He said,

Power rated at 30/30 watts RMS, checked at 32/32 which is 16 volts across 8 ohms. Distortion was: Left Ch: @20Hz=.21%, @1kHz=.11%, @20kHz=.23%. Right Ch: @20Hz=.34%, @1kHz=.26%, @20kHz=.32%. S/N ratio was 80db Left channel and 78db Right channel measured w/volume control 'up' in "tuner" position.

heh.

I've been meaning to ask God.. er, ribbon13.. what the most likely cause of the weaker right channel was.

Not like I have the equipment to test it even if I did try and fix it, but yeah.

 

[redly]

alcohol douche
make sure you buy the 93% stuff, not the 70%

better yet, acetone

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: redly
alcohol douche
make sure you buy the 93% stuff, not the 70%

better yet, acetone

I was going to recommend 99% alcohol, but I wasn't sure how well it would really work. It would get rid of the grime, but you would almost have to dip the whole boards in a bath of it to actually get it off. Just using a brush or something wouldn't work very well... the dirt would just be displaced, not gone..

 

[deftron]

acid bath

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Eli
We're not talking about computer dust bunnies here guys.

This is stuff that has been caked on for 30+ years. It doesen't blow off with air, only physical disturbance.

thank you!

ribbon13 recommend some cleaning materials for me the other day, so I went ahead and ordered the whole kit. deoxidizer, metal conditioner, and metal preservative chemicals in sprays and gels, with cleaning tools. a little pricey but I'm serious about cleaning up this amp. here's the link on PE:

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=341-246

I have some Novox to use for the aluminum I've only noticed one area with major scratches, which I'm hoping will come out, but we'll see. I'm going to start with the exterior next week.

but all that stuff is for the externior or moving parts on the exterior. I'm going to take it apart tomorrow and blow it out with compressed air. I might take some pics depending on how much gunk is in it.

That kit looks handy, I'll have to pick one up sometime.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Eli
We're not talking about computer dust bunnies here guys.

This is stuff that has been caked on for 30+ years. It doesen't blow off with air, only physical disturbance.

thank you!

ribbon13 recommend some cleaning materials for me the other day, so I went ahead and ordered the whole kit. deoxidizer, metal conditioner, and metal preservative chemicals in sprays and gels, with cleaning tools. a little pricey but I'm serious about cleaning up this amp. here's the link on PE:

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=341-246

I have some Novox to use for the aluminum I've only noticed one area with major scratches, which I'm hoping will come out, but we'll see. I'm going to start with the exterior next week.

but all that stuff is for the externior or moving parts on the exterior. I'm going to take it apart tomorrow and blow it out with compressed air. I might take some pics depending on how much gunk is in it.

That kit looks handy, I'll have to pick one up sometime.

I'll let you know how it works out. I'm picking up the compressed air today and hopefully ordered the RCA jacks for the rear later. I got banana jacks to replace the screws on the back, I can't wait to install and use them. I'll take pics if you're interested in how to mod the connectors.

 

[Ausm]

Buy new replacements.


Ausm

 

[mhillary]

I'd say clean them with a vaccum cleaner.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Ausm
Buy new replacements.


Ausm

I'll see how bad the damage is inside and then make a decision. I bought a soldering iron and some stuff to practice with the other day, so I'll replace stuff as I need to.

 

[ribbon13]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: redly
alcohol douche
make sure you buy the 93% stuff, not the 70%

better yet, acetone

I was going to recommend 99% alcohol, but I wasn't sure how well it would really work. It would get rid of the grime, but you would almost have to dip the whole boards in a bath of it to actually get it off. Just using a brush or something wouldn't work very well... the dirt would just be displaced, not gone..

70% rubbing alcohol can be purified yo 99% Isopropyl with sodium chloride (table salt) and a seperatory funnel.