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RE: Cigarette odor
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by N7NBB on October 19, 2000
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I used to be in the repair (and reconditioning for re-sale) of electronic musical instruments (organs, etc) and removing smoke odor was a real pain. Smoke particles are so small and invasive, and couple with that the natural convection or fan forced air circulation, and that means that UGLY SMELL has invaded the smallest most inaccessible areas in EVERYTHING ! You have to COMPLETELY dissable everything, and give each item a BATH - "BLU-SHOWER" electronics cleaner may work, but any good NON-LUBRICATING tuner cleaner... or similar for the circuit boards should work. The trick is in literally "FLUSHING" everything off. Don't try to be FRUGAL with the cleaner, or the smell will persist. Cases and plastic items can be washed conventionally, (I used to run all the keys, switch covers etc through the dishwasher). Clean all the POTS (inside) with cleaner... and the plates of capacitors too. If you really want to get "anal" about it EVEN the greese in the bearings of that tuner Capacitor will have "accepted" the smoke smell and should be changed out. Clean EVERY SIDE (surface) of EVERY THING. IE: even the EDGES of the glass/plastic window in front of the display... Plan your attack and think about totally cleaning everything.. what you will need to "get at" the individual boards, mechanical pieces, etc. It is not an IMPOSSIBLE task, but to COMPLETELY ELIMINATE smoke odor takes perserverance and patience.
Best of Luck !
My YL, (AD7MT) remembers seeing an add for some type of spray just for this purpose... ?? doesn't remember where, but it was in QST or CQ, or some ham mag. ?? (sorry)
73
N7NBB
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RE: Cigarette odor
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by KF4MFQ on October 19, 2000
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I read somewhere a while back about an OM who had some success with opening the case and placing a couple of fabric softener dryer sheets inside, then closing it up and leaving it sit for a week or so. Reportedly, this "soaks up" the odor on the inside. I don't have any personal experience in this regard, but it seems worth a try, perhaps coupled with a physical cleaning of the case.
73 and GL, Chris KF4MFQ
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RE: Cigarette odor
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by AC5DK on October 25, 2000
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The smell is not caused by the smoke particles, but rather by bacteria that feed off the particles...you can get rid of the smoke, but the critters stay. The only sure fire way to get rid of the smell, I am told, is with Ozone... but I don't know where or how you get that. BUT, I've tried Lysol and it seemed to help. It may take a few treatments, and I make no guarantees as to what it may or may not do to equipment. (All Disclaimers Apply, You Mileage May Vary, etc.) ;^)
73, Kevin
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RE: Cigarette odor
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by N3AWS on December 6, 2000
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The following MIGHT work and at the very least is easy and should do no harm...
Place the rig and microphone in a box with fabric cleaner sheets (wrap one around the mic which will probably have the strongest odor) and charcoal brickettes. Then wrap the box with Suran Wrap and store at room temperature for a week. If, at the end of a week, there's an improvement but you can still smell the smoke, repeat the process.
Also, do anything you can to improve the ventilation of your shack.
73, Jim N3AWS
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RE: Cigarette odor
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by KA2QFX on January 19, 2001
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OK, this may sound nuts but it worked for me. Once upon a time, when I used to repair a lot of rigs, someone brought me a smoke laden FT-101 off the trash heap. I mean it was so bad it looked like they sprayed undercoating in the radio. The tar was so bad all the wires were the same color. The bandswitches wouldn't click into place. I mean BAD, nothing seem to work and nobody wanted to touch it.
Now smoked radios were nothing new to me. Usually I just cleaned the faceplates and knobs (off the radio) with ammonia and warm water, polished them up with armour-all and reasembled. But this radio was dripping with tar and trash anyway if I couldn't clean it. Knowing I couldn't soak the radio with a water based cleaner, and not wanting to use large volumes of the more destructive solvents like trichloroethane, acetone,etc. I settled on a low water content alcohol based solvent unsing alcohol and some ammonia. (non sudsing) About 5 parts alcohol to 1 part amonnia (non-sudsing).
Since commercially available wood alcohol is denatured by law (darn ghuvmint) it contains some benzene. That meant I needed to removed all the styrene type plastic in the radio. That meant the meters, VFO assembly and faceplate and TX relay. I also removed the tubes. If you can find a cheap source of alcohol with out the benzene you can leave the plastics but at that time I couldn't afford that much tech grade alcohol and didn't think it was worth it anyway. I then soaked the radio in this solution for a few hours and flushed with straight alcohol. I did this for two nights using fresh solvent the second time. The radio came out immaculate. Only the really bad spots like the fan blades that were caked up needed manual brushing. When done the only thing that was unattractive was the flux on the circuit boards was reduced to a white residue. A toothbrush dampened with alcohol solved that quickly. I assured that the radio was dry by heating it for several hours. I think I used a blow dryer for the obvious stuff and then left it under a 100 watt lamp for a few days. It has to be absolutely dry before you apply power or it just won't work. VCOs really don't like ANY dampness.
Granted this was a drastic case that required drastic measures but that radio tuned up great and looked like new when I got done. I usually finished them off with a soft brushing of the face with some Armor All. You'd think it just came off the assy line.
I sold that radio after a year or so and as far as I know it's still humming along with no I'll effects.
I don't know what type of radio you have and certainly would caution you to proceed at your own risk. Particularly if you've got a lot of PC mounted relays like my TS-440. Anything that will trap the fluid is difficult to dry out. Remember this stuff is flammable and volitile so work outside on in a VERY well ventilated space. But perhaps you could judiciously apply some of my concoction to achieve your needs. It's a good story anyway that I don't get to tell often. But it's true, and I've heard stranger.
Best of luck,
Mark KA2QFX
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RE: Cigarette odor
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by KA2QFX on January 19, 2001
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Kevin:
I replied to this thread already but wanted to ask you what bacteria is a component of this problem. I have a degree in Bacteriology and worked in the field for several years, I don't know of any bacteria that thrive on smoke tar. But maybe I missed something.
I do know about the ozone however if you're interested. They make ozone lamps for commercial food plants and refrigeration systems, like walk in refrigerators, slaughter houses and stuff. Restaurant suppliers used to carry them, I suppose they still do. The Ozone is highly active O3. Unlike normal stable O2, the extra Oxygen seeks to combine vigorously with anything it can. By binding to (oxidizing) organic material it tends to neutralize their odor. O3 is also highly toxic to bacteria, especially the anaerobic types that live to grow in the bottom of disgusting heaps of things. But we needn't go there... That's the same mechanism at work when applying hydrogen peroxide to wound (H2O2), water with an extra oxygen, that's what causes the bubbles. Pour a little around a sink drain and see what lives there! Unfortunately ozone is also toxic to humans, generally causing irritated throats and bronchial passages. And it also attacks metals very nicely. If you ever have occasion to see the metal in a tranformer switch vault or motor control panel you'll see the effect of ozone produced from arcing. That's why power substations are always outdoors.
Anyway, I hope you found this interesting.
73,
Mark
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RE: Cigarette odor
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by WA0TDA on September 5, 2003
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I recently acquired an older Icom 2M mobile rig. Since these mobile rigs are all pretty well sealed against dust, they don't require much in the way of internal cleaning. Working the outside (especially the cooling fins) over with alcohol-based window cleaner works well. Just use plain water or eyeglasses cleaner on the clear plastic display window.
The microphone is a different story. The previous owner must have chain-smoked and yakked on 2M all day long, so using the mic without a cleaning was out of the question. Just getting it near my face was like smooching an old smokey geezer at a really wild party - not that I've ever done that! (Or want to.)
Anyway, I used rubbing alcohol and an old toothbrush to go over the mic, working through the PTT switch, the grill, and the touchpad. A paper towel caught the black crud as it washed off - use lots of juice on this! I soaked the coiled cord in detergent water, then went over it a couple of times with a paper towel soaked in alcohol.
Everything got dried for a half-day in the sun on a low-humidity day, placed against a dark-colored surface to increase the heating.
It passed the smell test, if one is not overly critical - a very slight hint of odor up close might be acceptable, as long as heating during normal operation doesn't cause a stronger odor to return. The mic doesn't heat up, but you've got to get those cooling fins clean!
73 - Pat
wa0tda at arrl dot net
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