Health hazard working on old PC systems - incredible amounts of dust and sooty ka ka

[John]

Never really thought of it but maybe you should wear a dust mask when
working on them.

Some people have been brininging me their old systems this week after
I worked on a neighbors system to help him upgrade.

All these people have these decrepit systems that show signs of rust
and can you imagine how much dust collects on systems are a few years
old? Its incredible. All the fans are clogged with clumps of dust
that look like dirty wool and there is dirt , fine soot and dust
covering everything.

Like a fool I agreed to look at 3 systems and after taking their
covers off I couldnt breathe !

I was coughing and my nose started running like crazy.

A good idea maybe to open them up outside in your backyard or veranda
..

 

[kony]

Never really thought of it but maybe you should wear a dust mask when
working on them.

Some people have been brininging me their old systems this week after
I worked on a neighbors system to help him upgrade.

All these people have these decrepit systems that show signs of rust
and can you imagine how much dust collects on systems are a few years
old? Its incredible. All the fans are clogged with clumps of dust
that look like dirty wool and there is dirt , fine soot and dust
covering everything.

Like a fool I agreed to look at 3 systems and after taking their
covers off I couldnt breathe !

I was coughing and my nose started running like crazy.

A good idea maybe to open them up outside in your backyard or veranda
.

True, but unless you had a pre-existing heath (breathing) condition it's
only a temporary problem... not like you'll be living inside the box for
any length of time. In the past I've actually used a leaf blower on very
nasty systems, from a great distance so it wasn't so harsh... keep in mind
that i have plenty of spare hardware so if I did damage an ancient system
at worst they'd be getting a free upgrade. If you have a dust mask you
might as well use it... a waste to have one never realizing it's purpose.

 

[Jon Danniken]

Never really thought of it but maybe you should wear a dust mask when
working on them.

Some people have been brininging me their old systems this week after
I worked on a neighbors system to help him upgrade.

See what happens? That will teach you never to admit to possessing computer knowledge again.

A good idea maybe to open them up outside in your backyard or veranda

I open them up and blow them off on the patio, standing upwind, of course. One thing I notice is that the scent of
a person's cologne/perfume tends to concentrate in the dust found inside of computers. This makes sense, of course,
since the majority of dust is human skin

Jon

 

[Trent©]

Never really thought of it but maybe you should wear a dust mask when
working on them.

Some people have been brininging me their old systems this week after
I worked on a neighbors system to help him upgrade.

All these people have these decrepit systems that show signs of rust
and can you imagine how much dust collects on systems are a few years
old? Its incredible. All the fans are clogged with clumps of dust
that look like dirty wool and there is dirt , fine soot and dust
covering everything.

Like a fool I agreed to look at 3 systems and after taking their
covers off I couldnt breathe !

I was coughing and my nose started running like crazy.

A good idea maybe to open them up outside in your backyard or veranda
.

Do it in the rain. It'll keep the dust down.


Have a nice week...

Trent©

Follow Joan Rivers' example --- get pre-embalmed!

 

[John]

True, but unless you had a pre-existing heath (breathing) condition it's
only a temporary problem... not like you'll be living inside the box for
any length of time. In the past I've actually used a leaf blower on very
nasty systems, from a great distance so it wasn't so harsh... keep in mind
that i have plenty of spare hardware so if I did damage an ancient system
at worst they'd be getting a free upgrade. If you have a dust mask you
might as well use it... a waste to have one never realizing it's purpose.

If you work on your own system yeah its no big deal.

This was probably a special case , 3 really OLD systems that probably
havent opened in ages and for some reason there is an incredible
amount of dust here and really fine black soot. I think its volcano
ash.

When I opened these up and started blowing dust off things and
cleaning them - the entire living room was filled with gritty fine
sooty dust.

I was gagging all night.

 

[John]

See what happens? That will teach you never to admit to possessing computer knowledge again.


I open them up and blow them off on the patio, standing upwind, of course. One thing I notice is that the scent of
a person's cologne/perfume tends to concentrate in the dust found inside of computers. This makes sense, of course,
since the majority of dust is human skin

That was horrible. It wasnt like the usual bit of dust in my system.
My sinuses and eyes were all screwed up. I was blowing my nose for
hours.

 

[kony]

If you work on your own system yeah its no big deal.

Likely most of "us" never let our systems get THAT dusty, but I often drag
a few old boxes home, is when I get out the ole leaf-blower.

This was probably a special case , 3 really OLD systems that probably
havent opened in ages and for some reason there is an incredible
amount of dust here and really fine black soot. I think its volcano
ash.

Reminds me of some cases I had that were formerly employed at a gravel
quarry... they didn't know what filters were, apparently. I marveled that
the systems were still running _until_ they failed.

When I opened these up and started blowing dust off things and
cleaning them - the entire living room was filled with gritty fine
sooty dust.

I was gagging all night.

Living room sounds like a bad place to do it. If worst came to worst I
suppose you could throw together a filtration system and set it next to
the system while cleaning, for example a box fan with a fine furnace
filter strapped on... a bit noisey but no more so than the vacuum cleaner
later

 

[ProfGene]

Radio Shack sells a mini vacume cleaner for cds that costs around ten bucks
and cleans up dust quite well. It runs on batteries.

 

[John]

Radio Shack sells a mini vacume cleaner for cds that costs around ten bucks
and cleans up dust quite well. It runs on batteries.

Yeah that sounds like a great idea but last time I mentioned a vacuum
cleaner , people jumped on it saying it was static elec generator.

Some did mentioned washing their boards though with soap and water.
Then drying it thoroughly. It struck me as bizarre but as long as its
thoroughly dried I guess its OK.

I still wish they would make filters on the fan intakes that you can
get to easily. Like on air cons they have this handy pull out filter
you can pull out at anytime without removing anything.

 

[kony]

Yeah that sounds like a great idea but last time I mentioned a vacuum
cleaner , people jumped on it saying it was static elec generator.

Some did mentioned washing their boards though with soap and water.
Then drying it thoroughly. It struck me as bizarre but as long as its
thoroughly dried I guess its OK.

"Soap" should not be used, but rather detergent. Any of the typically
"pretty" clean circuit boards see in PCs are cleaned by the manufacturer
with detergent then dried at a controlled, high temp. It would not be
safe for an end-user to try this controlled temp drying unless they had a
laboratory grade oven so a much longer drying time is needed. This is
also before things like stickers are applied and since parts are new,
components like capacitors still have their plug seal intact.

I still wish they would make filters on the fan intakes that you can
get to easily. Like on air cons they have this handy pull out filter
you can pull out at anytime without removing anything.

Some industrial units do, but today it seems cosmetic appearance overrides
functionality, they just don't look as nice.

Recently I've been playing with some filters while building another box,
and confirmed what I'd already believed, that filters drastically cut down
on airflow. Using fairly coase, less restrictive filter material (oddly
enough it's from an air conditioner filter kit) the airflow was reduced by
(very rough figure) 70%. While the system could've been cooled by a
single 92mm intake and 80mm exhaust if non-filtered, I now have fitted 3 x
92mm and 1 x 120mm intake fans and still question if the flow will be
sufficient... case isn't finished yet and has capacity for 14 drives minus
a bay or two that'll have fan controller and I0/smartpanel installed. I
doubt I'll ever have all 14 bays filled but probably at least 8 drives if
including opticals.

The filter solution I selected will have filter panels rather than filters
only large enough to cover the opening of the fan housing. This allows
better flow and longer interval between cleaning but since they aren't
mating with the fan housing it also requires gaskets around the fan panel
to filter interface to prevent substantial leakage around the filters.
If I ever get it finished (not in any particular rush to do so) I'll take
a few pictures.

 

[John]

The filter solution I selected will have filter panels rather than filters
only large enough to cover the opening of the fan housing. This allows
better flow and longer interval between cleaning but since they aren't
mating with the fan housing it also requires gaskets around the fan panel
to filter interface to prevent substantial leakage around the filters.
If I ever get it finished (not in any particular rush to do so) I'll take
a few pictures.

Im curious how cosmetically decent it looks - ha .
That seems like the hardest part in a DIY job.

You a half inch tall bracket with a grill on the outside that just
screws in using same fan mounting holes on the outside of the back and
sides would be easy to manufacture I think. With a slide in fliter on
the side in a slot on the square bracket.

In the front it could be possible, just get a jigsaw to cut a square
hole in the front plastic panel , or use a hole saw. Then make a large
more cosmetically attractive rounded edge bracket with a large foam
gasket so that it can fit on a variety of weird shaped front panels
with a grille on it , and make the plastic bracket attractive and -
maybe sloping sides, in different colors - beige black blue etc.

Get a patent on it and sell it.
I have a feeling there are tons of similar patents since any trivial
idea seems to get patented.

 

[George]

Yeah that sounds like a great idea but last time I mentioned a vacuum
cleaner , people jumped on it saying it was static elec generator.

That's true, but there are vacuum cleaners designed to minimize static
electricity...3M makes one. (They are cheaper if you buy them from a source
other than a tool shop for working on PCBs, but will still run you close to
$200.) Alternatively, you could use a cheap ionizer to ionize the area and
use a regular vacuum sparingly. You create static primarily by high-speed
air flow through any open vias on the printed circuit board. I've measured
5,000 volts created on a vacuum actuated test fixture when the client has
changed their manufacturing process and left the vias unsoldered.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Never really thought of it but maybe you should wear a dust mask when
working on them.

I use an electric pulsation air compressor. Near the nozzle, high
velocity air exits in pulses - not big volume, but lots of turbulence.
I simultaneously position the end of a vacuum cleaner wand about
6 inches away. The small clouds of dust raised by the compressed
air get sucked into the vacuum cleaner by the wand. When I do this
under a fluoresent lamp, I can see that virtualy all the dust enters
the vacuum cleaner, and virtually none floats away into the ambient
room air. Nothing but the compressed air touches the interior of the
PC, and 99% of the dust gets blown away into the vacuum cleaner.

*TimDaniels*