Mildewed Equipment!

[Dana Brigham]

Not sure if this is the right forum, but I hope you folks can help, or point me in the right direction for help.

I have *lots* of music/recording equipment I have gathered over the years, and it all spent 10 years in a friend's basement. Earlier this year I went and retrieved it all and was very dismayed to find everything reeks of mildew!

My drums seem to have recovered through a thorough airing for months in my (clean/dry) garage. My amps and rack mount equipment smell *better* after having very light rinses (so as not to get the liquid inside) with a bleach/bathroom detergent mix. Luckily my guitars/basses seemed fine inside their cases, though the outside of the cases are still stinky.

The biggest problem I am tacking now is what to do about the *miles* of cables I have -- line level, microphone, power, patch, etc.. These have sat in my garage for months now, but I detect little reduction in the mildew smell or "look" (they seem "dusty" looking). Trying to wipe them down end-to-end with a cleaning solution seems like way too much work and way too time consuming.

HELP -- what can you suggest? If I emerse the entire cables in cleaning solution I feel that I risk corroding the connectors/internal wiring. Do you have any good recipes for cleaning solutions? One interesting note -- I was untangling them all and laying them out on the driveway in the sun/warmth (80's) and *while* they were warmed by the sun they seemed to have less of the mildew smell, but after returning them to the garage and hanging them up for a few hours, they seem just as stinky as before.

Thanks for anything you can tell me!

 

[JPickman]

Caig

I don't know how bad your cables are, but My studio Flooded once.....I used a regular mildow cleaner on the rubber(make sure it is safe on plastics), and I used D5 Deoxit from Caig Industries( I always have some on hand for pots and anything that could suffer from oxidation) and use it on the connectors (TRS, 1/4, XLR, etc....) everything worked fine and smelled okay after this long process........I had over $5000.00 worth of cables collected over the years........ Check out their products......their website is:

http://www.caig.com/


Hopefully this will give you some ideas....

 

[DigitalDon]

We have some stuff at work (aerosol I think) that's used just for cleaning cables (rubber, vinyl, etc). Unfortunately today is Friday and I'm off Monday. I'll take a look at it Tuesday morning and post back here. As far as the connectors, the best I've ever used is Deoxit. Comes in bottle or aerosol. You can buy it at http://www.partsexpress.com/webpage...h=3&manufacturer=30&cat_id=38&Objectgroup=177
For cleaning cables you might want to look at this site http://www.polywater.com/cd1wipe.html . Don't know the price.

DD

 

[frederic]

The smell on the cable on the sheathing is one thing, that comes off with a plastic/rubber compatible cleaner.

Same for the amps.

Connectors are another story, and Radio Shack has several cleaners available that will make the ends shiney and new again. You might also consider an electronics supply house and buy quantity, so it costs less, if you have that much cabling.

 

[Sennheiser]

After you have your cables all cleaned up, wipe a light coat of Armor All down the length of the cable.

It will help the rubber insulation maintain its' pliability if the cleaners have dried out the jackets. Plus it looks good too.