Importance of a non-smoking environment

  • Thread starter Thread starter whattaguy
  • Start date Start date
W

whattaguy

New member
What are the detrimental effects of smoking and a DAW?
A person I told never to bring that crap in my room just lit up 3 when I was at work.


thanks
 
It typically takes a lot of time.

Ever see a piece of a electrical equipment that's been in a smokey environment? There'll be a layer of filth all over everything...and inside things. That layer of filth translates to heat. Heat causes swelling. Swelling is bad.

Anything with moving parts is especially susceptible to no longer moving when coated with smokey film.

Finally, consider that the heads on your hard drive glide on a pocket of air that is smaller than the head of a pin. Drives are typically sealed such that dust can't invade the system, but smoke particles are smaller than dust.

It's a bad situation all around, but lighting up a few smokes around equipment isn't such a horrible thing....if it was we wouldn't have live music in bars :) It's kinda like what happens to your lungs! It doesn't kill you instantly...but give it enough time and you're toast....no pun intended.

Slackmaster 2000
 
How about the detrimental effects on your health? I'd say that's a bit more important than any computer.

OK, I'll get off my podium and try to help for a change...wait, is this you or your friend tokin' it up...I'm confused...does not compute... :eek:

Anyway, its probably not a big deal. It wouldn't be a good thing if somehow the intake fan of the computer somehow sucked the smoke in like a champ...but still nothing serious. I would definitely get some filters installed on the fans if this is going to be a frequent occurance, but it doesn't really sound like it will be. I suppose it could be possible for the smoke to build up on the heatsink, giving you a slightly hotter CPU, but I don't any serious corrosive or conductive effects would result from components being exposed to smoke. I mean, think of all the smokey control rooms with $100,000 worth of gear just sitting there soaking it all up. I tend to think that a 3-micron mic diaphragm might fare a bit worse...but your DAW should be safe. IMO, the worst thing is having to breathe the smoke and deal with the smell afterwards.
 
Thanks for the quick response! The smoker wasn't me...I quit a few years ago.
 
Thankful but worried

I want to stop, I jst can't seem to do it. So I try not to smoke near the equipment and, having read your thread, I will implement even stricter rules regarding smoking near the euipment. From now on, smoking will be in the kitchen area only and only near an open window. In fact, when the nice weather comes around, its out the window with the smoking and onto the fire escape. Smoking is just plain bad.
 
I've tried to quit for years also....HOWEVER I will not smoke anywhere near my kids, wife, or equipment.
 
I quit almost two years ago. Definately one of the hardest things I've ever done. Sounds kinda weak I know, but nicotine addiction is harsh, and coupled with the psychological "habitual" addiction of just smoking....damn, it's one tough habit. I still think about it every day. I *almost* tricked myself into having a smoke just the other weekend! After two years!

Slackmaster 2000
 
Actually, there are definite mechanical and conductive effects from exposure to smoke. In about 1981, a buddy of mine bought a large diaphragm condenser used from a studio owned and engineered by a heavy smoker. It was very noisy- and the reason was the layer of gunk that had built up on the circuit board (yes, smoke does seem to get _everywhere_).

Condenser mics use very high-valued resistors (like 1 gigohm!) to bias up the capsules. The layer of smoke tar had become thick enough to become conductive, and the mic developed a low frequency rumble. The funny thing was that when you used it for vocals, the humidity from the singers' breath would be absorbed by the smoke layer, and the LF noise would slowly increase over the course of a day. The mic would dry out overnight, and get quieter- but not as quiet as it should have been...

A quick bath in defluxer solved that problem. It sounded just like the MC012s that are noisy because the boards aren't being sufficiently cleaned at the factory.... The entire case and windscreen got a bath in Freon TF, too- that was one smelly mic...

The other thing is that the smoke gunk can build up on the diaphragm, increasing its mass and causing the frequency response to change. The capsule in that mic was one dull-sounding piece, set side-by-side with a new one of similar design.

However, having said that: there are people who prefer the sound of the older, thicker, more brittle Neumann capsules. So they may like the sound of them with a 5-micron layer of tar on the as well- probably makes them "warmer", or something. Who knows? There's no accounting for taste- so your mileage may vary.

One other thing: smoke tar plays _hell_ with the conductive tracks on pots- especially middling-low-priced console faders. The better conductive plastic faders handle it better (P&Gs shield the element pretty well), but the cheap Alps carbon-track pots have the element right out in clear view- right where all the crud goes. So you can expect your faders to go noisy much quicker when exposed to smoke.

Cramolin can restore them, for a while, but that's a nasty environment for any pot. Ever wonder why the faders on the house mixing boards in all those clubs are so noisy? If you work live FOH a lot, keeping a can of TV tuner cleaner (like Blue Shower) in your toolbox can sometimes save the day- as long as you only use it while the house guy isn't looking...
 
Skippy, thanks for the cool info. Are there any dangers to using the TV Tuner cleaner (besides the dangers to your health)? I have a can of it that I use to clean pots and such, but I always use it very sparingly and am afraid to get it on stuff. Maybe it's the harsh smell or just the thought of liquid on electrical components.

Is it ok to be liberal with the stuff (assuming a well-ventilated area!!)? I've got some noisy pots on a preamp that I'd really like to douse, but I'm kind of chicken.

Will it harm plastics, certain metals, paints, etc? What about drying time?

The can I have has a whole lot of health warnings, but no indication of what it can and cannot be used on, aside from tuner controls.

Slackmaster 2000
 
Ahh. I wouldn't typically use tuner cleaner on something I own, if I could help it: it's a last-ditch day-saver for live work only, when working with abused/neglected gear.

Tuner cleaners are arguably safe for most gear, but they are also very, very harsh- so you don't want to use them very often. You only want to use them when you _have_ to. Like when the pots on the live mixer graunch every time you budge them... A cheapo pot will handle 10 or 20 baths in the stuff, but probably no more; it washes carbon off the track. I didn't mind using it on live rigs- I was doing them a favor, and I was also probably the only putz who ever _did_. But not on my own gear...

For my own stuff, I always used to use straight Freon TF. Period. And then follow it up with Cramolin protectant for any really bitchy pots. Regrettably, Freon TF is now illegal as hell- the EPA and National Guard would probably show up if you tried to use it, and you sure as hell can't buy it.

A lot happened in the 10 years that I ignored this stuff, looks like. Just a little while back I found out that Cramolin had a spray wash, and I was all hot to try it- until I found out that it is no longer imported into this country. Probably had TF in it, because that was the solvent used in the red and blue stuff anyway. So at this point, I'd probably go look at the Caig stuff for my own gear: maybe the CaiLube spray for my own pots, and their R5 power contact cleaner as the crowbar for the road toolbox, since you can't get Blue Shower anymore either.

TechSpray makes something they call "Blue Shower II", but I don't know anything about it- except that it ain't Blue Shower... There's also a new goop that uses HCFC-225, so it might possibly rival TF. We'll see... The AMS flux remover that I got, which is 225 and methanol, kicks _ass_ for stripping flux from the Oktava circuit boards. Some other ones use naptha as the vehicle- now, there's a friendly goop to use near plastics! The world had changed: now they want you to tear your liver out, rather than damage the ozone layer. Horses for courses...

Ayway, right now, my gear is all new enough that it hasn't started pissing me off yet. So I haven't really investigated the *current* crop of goops. Don't know what's in 'em, don't know what they do. I suppose I really ought to try some of them, just to get ahead of the game- so that I know what to use when I need it! Right now, I don't know what eats what among the legal chemicals... Maybe Drstawl can kick in some info here, since he's current in the corrosives-and-solvents biz...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top