who uses what to vacuum a dusty chassis?

[Garydean]

OK, this is a maintenance type question so I hope I'm posting in the right location. If I'm moved....it's OK.

There are quite a few thrifty techs out there so I'm hoping for some great ideas. I've been searching for a few days now for a good vacuum system to remove dust and schmeg from inside an amp. I have seen the 3M service vacuum for computers, but no way am I spending $225 for that sucker (doh). Pretty much what I do now is use a soft mini brush and blow out the debris, not such a great idea....nasty.

ideas anyone?

Gary

[Enzo]

I use the same thing I pick up dirt with in the shop - a plain old vanilla SHop Vac.

The one here under my bench is in fact the Shop Vac brand, but I have a couple Sears Craftsman shop vacs and they have worked well over the decades. It is just a damn vacuum.

That 3M thing is portable, folds up like a tool box and has a handle on it. Plus it is quiet. All that so you can walk into a doctor or lawyer's office and look professional and not disturb people with your noise as you charge than $300 an hour to maintain their computer. Oh, it is probably anti-statoc too. WHat do yuo care if there is vacuum noise in your shop? And last time I checked, Fender Bassman amps were not full of CMOS.

Vac sits under my bench, the hose reaches up to my workspace easily.

I have a couple CHEAP paint brushes I use, I think they are a 1" and a 3", or something close. I hold the hose over the work and loosen dirt with the brush.

[Alex R]

Yeah house vacuum cleaner with no brush and a stiff paintbrush, you just hold the vacuum in the general area and loosen up the rubbish with the brush, shifts it easy.

Hey what's a good solvent for the stuff that gets baked onto AC30 chassis and other hot places?

[Amp Kat]

I pop the back door and throw it on te concrete and use my blow gun hooked up to the compressor and the paint brush and away it goes. Unreal how much dust gets trapped in the bottom of Combo's.

[drewl]

Shop vac at home, at work we have an area for cleaning stuff with an air hose I use to blow out dirty crusty stuff......ever see what a PA amp that's been sitting in a bar for years looks like inside?
eeeeeewwwwwwww......makes ya want to quit smoking instantly...

[Enzo]

I one of my other lives, I restore old juke boxes. REbuilding amplifiers I know you all can relate to. But they are very mechanical things as well. All manner of gears and levers and motors and stuff. We would find these old Wirlitzer boxes in peoples garages and the grease and goo covering them was a mess.

We would pull the mechanism out of the jukebox and take it to the quarter car wash and spray wash the grease and dirt away.

Drip dry, relube, and go from there.

[oc disorder]

I use small paint brushes and regular vacuum cleaner with the crevice tool
(which Dame Edna endorses) and much to the family's annoyance I collect
up the worn toothbrushes clean them and chuck through the dishwasher.
I usually use the toothbrushes with Isopropyl alcohol to shift old solder flux
or gunk stuck to pcb boards.. sometimes depending on the surface use
mild detergent with warm water makeing sure to dry after ..
For hard to get at dry muck cart the chassis to the local petrol station
(gas station) and use their compressed air.
Blu tac (like plasticine) is good to remove small metal particles from pickups or hard to get to places so I don't flick them where they are not wanted.
Sometimes I find Isopropyl alcohol is good to clean ends of wire prior to soldering particually when its in a loom and not enough slack to prepare
a new "end". Even finger grease can make it awkward to solder sometimes
and a quick wipe with I.A. helps the solder to flow.
Obviously let it evaporate first...!

[Garydean]

Enzo, always full of surprises. I used to have a Seeburg M100B until my "X" took it with her as compensation, 15 years ago. I recall paying $1,600 for it, 18 years ago, fully restored. What a great job the guy did, I must say.

Gary

[Aloha_Mark]

I just hose off the whole amp and let the warm tubes dry it. Lol. But, seriously, I don't use vacuum cleaners. A dust wipe is normally sufficient on the chassis, and once that is removed from a cabinet, you can vacuum the wood. Dusting tools come as cloths and wands, and can even be wadded to get into tight spaces. Since they are absorbent, you can even remove a certain amount of grease with them- that is not possible with a vacuum cleaner.

[nickb]

I take it outside and use a compressor to blow it all away. Have you ever seen a spider go "Wheeee!" ?

[drewl]

NECRO-THREAD ALERT!
But here we are five years later and I'm still using the same shop vac.
At least once a month I get some amp with all matter of crap in the cabinet of an old amp, rat/mouse/critter droppings, dog food....usually in old Ampegs.
Is there a rule that old Ampegs MUST be stored in a barn or attic or something?

[Randall]

I have the 3M computer vac. I paid $200 for it almost 20 years ago. It's great. I love the assortment of smaller nozzles that it comes with. The smallest one generates a LOT of suction. And it's safe to use on CMOS devices as it is made of conductive material and is grounded. It paid for itself pretty fast back when I was doing office house calls. And it has a very good filter, so I don't worry about recycling the dust back into the air as most cheap vacs do to some extent.

[jbltwin1]

Shop vac AND household vac here. BUT, what I did was take a piece of 1/2" coppper pipe, insert it into a piece of heater hose and then wrap tape around it until it was the right size to fit in the end of the hose. Then I can get in those smaller spaces in an amp. Woks quite well actually. Mike.

[olddawg]

I think I mentioned this before. A shop I worked in for years had all of the bench stations cut out to accept a standard shop cart with wheels. We had many more carts than we had benches. A heavy unit went on a cart at the counter. At the back door to the building we had a rather large air compressor with a long hose. We would just roll the carts out the door and blow them out with compressed air. I used a brush as well but always found that compressed air works a lot better than a vacuum and it kept the mess outside the building.

[Randall]

I avoid compressed air for cleaning. It blows some of the dirt and dust deeper into some parts. Not to mention breathing it.