OT: Cleaning a FILTHY Computer

[Carroll Grigsby]

Billy Pollifrone wrote:
> On Sun, 2006-01-29 at 18:41 -0700, Dana J. Laude wrote:
> 
>>Compressed air from the can works best. Typically you can get
>>them at Walmart, or other places.  You don't want to use air
>>from a air compressor, since these are normally not filtered
>>properly, thus water and oil comes with the blast. 
> 
> 
> Unless, of course, the air compressor is equipped with a water filter as
> one used for air tools.
> 
> 

Billy:
Sorry, but it's not a good idea to use an ordinary industrial air 
compressor to clean electronic parts. First, while those filters extract 
some of the water, they don't get all of it. Second, most compressors 
used for air tools have an lubricator installed; its purpose is to 
inject a small amount of oil into the air stream to lubricate the air 
tool. If nothing else, that oil will form a film on everything it 
touches, and that film is a super dust magnet. Next time around, you'll 
need a hammer and a chisel. Third, most air compressors supply the air 
at somewhere between 80 and 125 psig (about 5.5 to 8.6 bar) so unless 
you crank the regulator back to a much lower pressure. the velocity of 
the air stream could cause some damage to connectors, etc. (But it would 
be fun to watch the cooling fans spin.)

-- cmg (who spent a large part of his career designing pneumatic equipment)