dusting your mixer ?

[Nick The Man]

i figured this was appropriate for the recording techniques spot so here it is...

how do you dust your mixer????

mine is covered in dust and i cant get into those hard to reach spots with just a tissue and my chunky fingers.

How do you keep yours dust free???

 

[apl]

Our beloved The Ghost Of FM, the mercurial front man of Short Sircuit, the international mega-star Canadian Tull Cover Band whose most requested live numbers were Get The #&@% Off The Stage and Shut the &^%$ Up, who also wrecked a borrowed RX-7, and appeared on a Rush album, gave me useable advice when I was wondering about dusting my monitors.

He recommended a soft paintbrush.

 

[Nick The Man]

lol very intresting ..sounds like a happy man .. haha good advice though

 

[RAMI]

I just feather dust it ofrten eough to not have to get to any grunge.

 

[Neeps]

Hold on I'll go ask my mum.

 

[amra]

I take it outside and use my air compressor and a blower to blow it out, and then I remind myself to keep the custom made dust cover I had made for it, on it...

 

[Nick The Man]

yeah i tried the compressor too .. it didnt work for me though


maybe i have ACID DUST!!!!!!

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

He recommended a soft paintbrush.

That's exactly what I use on all my gear, a big fat 4" soft hair paint brush. Along with the compressed air for areas that the paintbrish can't quite reach.

G.

 

[zacanger]

I'm assuming those Office Duster-type cans of compressed air are no-nos?

 

[Mindset]

That's exactly what I use on all my gear, a big fat 4" soft hair paint brush. Along with the compressed air for areas that the paintbrish can't quite reach.

G.

Just for information, don't do it on a hot day,, or with a room that's too humid.... when using air compressors moisture tends to come out along with it, and that's a risk for electronic parts. I tend to turn one on, and make sure no water comes out then use it.

compressed air in cans is sorta ok, just as long as you don't turn the can around, or spray some of that stuff onto the machine and turn it on lol.

 

[timboZ]

Use a paintbrush and get a cover for it.

 

[zed32]

Just for information, don't do it on a hot day,, or with a room that's too humid.... when using air compressors moisture tends to come out along with it, and that's a risk for electronic parts. I tend to turn one on, and make sure no water comes out then use it.

compressed air in cans is sorta ok, just as long as you don't turn the can around, or spray some of that stuff onto the machine and turn it on lol.

yeah he's right about air compressors, if you don't drain them properly a lot of moisture will build up inside, and the thing could just become a water sprayer. good to test spray a few times before putting the nozzle to your mixer.

 

[kid klash]

The safest way to dust a mixer or any other piece of gear with pots and other controls is to use a vacuum with a micro filter bag. You want to remove the dust and grit, not push the dirt into it. Most decent vacuums come with a soft brush attachment, which is perfect... it helps dislodge the grit from the surface, and it eliminates the chance of scratching the panel.

And like the others have mentioned, keep it covered when not in use. A clean bath towel will work in a pinch.

 

[legionserial]

I used to just give mine a ruffle with a t-shirt everyday, but since I got a cat I keep a blanket over it when it's not being used.

 

[xstatic]

Canned air works fine, but I usually use a nice soft bristled paintbrush in conjunction with a vacuum. I even use the vacuum when I use the canned air. Both the air and the paintbrush don't really remove the dust, they just move it around. With the vacuum at least some of it gets removed as you are cleaning. The biggest thing is to get a cover for your console so that it is not constantly collecting dust. Personally, I would not use a tissue. Feather dusters do tend to work pretty well also.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Just for information, don't do it on a hot day,, or with a room that's too humid.... when using air compressors moisture tends to come out along with it, and that's a risk for electronic parts. I tend to turn one on, and make sure no water comes out then use it.

Absolutely, that's a given.

Keep the can well shaken and upright and, as you say, give it some primer blasts before you move in for the kill, and make sure you don't get too close with the nozzle and linger too long on one spot, though, and there is no substitute. For years we used those to clean out the insides of PCs in client offices; these were PCs that were loaded with everything from memory cache boards to network I/O cards that had filled up their ISA/EISA/PCI (depending upon the age of the PC) slots to the maximum, and the only efficient way of cleaning off the boards without taking each of them out individually and painiting them was to give them a good blast of compressed air. With literally hundreds of PCs - servers and clients - and thousands of boards over several years, we never had a single issue with one of these PCs that was even closely related to compressed air condensation.

Used right, compressed air condensation is not a problem, and sometimes there is no legitimate practical substitute. And it's far better on electronics to take the blanket of dust off than it is to levae it on. Those expansion boards were a good example. An even better one in my own studio is the amps on my HR824s. Without taking the amps apart, there is no good way to get at the dust that filters throuh the vents in the back and onto the heat sinks. I've been regularly blasting compressed air through there to keep the sinks somewhat dusted. Both this method and my monitors have worked great for me for going on 8 years and counting.

All that siad, though, I'd still reserve the compressed air only for those areas or surfaces not effectively or readily accessable by a vacuum or brush. Not only for the potential condensation reasons previously given, but for an even better reason; the shit's just too damn expensive! That crap makes the rip-off otherwise known as bottled water look like a downright bargain .

G.

 

[tkingen]

Since I mix ITB, I just run a damp cloth over the monitor screen

 

[MCI2424]

i figured this was appropriate for the recording techniques spot so here it is...

how do you dust your mixer????

mine is covered in dust and i cant get into those hard to reach spots with just a tissue and my chunky fingers.

How do you keep yours dust free???

Get one of those feather type dusters (the one with the thin strings, looks like a hairbrush). Works great.

 

[Jack Russell]

I just vaccum it with the open tube and no brush on the end.

 

[Mindset]

Absolutely, that's a given.

Keep the can well shaken and upright and, as you say, give it some primer blasts before you move in for the kill, and make sure you don't get too close with the nozzle and linger too long on one spot, though, and there is no substitute. For years we used those to clean out the insides of PCs in client offices; these were PCs that were loaded with everything from memory cache boards to network I/O cards that had filled up their ISA/EISA/PCI (depending upon the age of the PC) slots to the maximum, and the only efficient way of cleaning off the boards without taking each of them out individually and painiting them was to give them a good blast of compressed air. With literally hundreds of PCs - servers and clients - and thousands of boards over several years, we never had a single issue with one of these PCs that was even closely related to compressed air condensation.

Used right, compressed air condensation is not a problem, and sometimes

there is no legitimate practical substitute. And it's far better on electronics to take the blanket of dust off than it is to levae it on. Those expansion boards were a good example. An even better one in my own studio is the amps on my HR824s. Without taking the amps apart, there is no good way to get at the dust that filters throuh the vents in the back and onto the heat sinks. I've been regularly blasting compressed air through there to keep the sinks somewhat dusted. Both this method and my monitors have worked great for me for going on 8 years and counting.

All that siad, though, I'd still reserve the compressed air only for those areas or surfaces not effectively or readily accessable by a vacuum or brush. Not only for the potential condensation reasons previously given, but for an even better reason; the shit's just too damn expensive! That crap makes the rip-off otherwise known as bottled water look like a downright bargain .

G.

Oh trust me I know , my team & I equal 7 people, overlooking all systems & servers and users There's about 5 thousand employees here in the U.S, and countless other places (Solvay America). I've never had problems with air compressors myself, except once, where I saw moisture shoot out the hose, but I wasn't stupid enough to start spraying electrical equipment with it and that was working for someone else. The major problems here, are someone or some how a server goes down, which is rarely, but still causes mass hysteria.