Hi,

I can't say that I have ever seen 409 damage anything, but I tend
to work on commercial gear. Ham gear often uses sub commercial
practices in its construction. I remember trying to deflux the boards
in a SB104 that I had just built. I tried isopropyl alcohol, like I
routinely did with commercial pc boards, and it started to remove the
solder mask! I have never seen anything like that before or since.

I can bet that hand scrubbing all those parts would do a great job of
punishing your poor fingers. Your PT would be proud!

-Chuck Harris

No Spam wrote:
On Mon, 23 Feb 2004 15:30:09 UTC, Chuck Harris
wrote:


Spray cleaners like 409, work too, spray liberally, and
scrub with a brush, and rinse with pure water, distilled is best.
Drying in a convection oven (fan circulation) at 140F finishes up the
job. A cardboard box with a fan, and a light for a heater works too.


careful with 409, I've seen it degrade the panel lettering.

I de-smoked an SB-303 by hand wiping every exposed wire, part,
surface using a clean cloth damped with a very dilute detergent
solution. It took a lot of work but I was recovering from hand
surgery and needed a punishing amount of effort as physical therapy.

Gently and firmly rubbing small components for hours is excrutiating
pain but it really strengthens your fingers.

de ah6gi/4 www.kiyoinc.com/heathstuff.html

I have gotten a real nasty ones, the only thing that work's best way is to
carefully scrub with elecroststic smoke eater cleaner + final rinse with
distilled water and a good long hot air dry. Its not cheap, about $14 at
Sears.

I hear of some guys on the Heath reflector covering the cans, vfo's, etc and
using the dishwasher.
I have never done this, perhaps it was a joke.
However I do bake enamel on R-390 knobs in the toaster on 175 for a couple
hours

-Joe


"lorentzson" wrote in message
...
I am wondering if there is a tried and true way of getting rid of the

smoke smell out of radios? Would appreciate any and all help. thanks
in advance. cl 73

Hi Joe,

It's not a joke! I have done this, and it works very well.
It is a bit aggressive on paint, though. It was a standard
treatment for old tube trunk mount 2-way radios.

Hams, being smokers of professional caliber, really wreck their
equipment with tobacco smoke. Sometimes a dishwasher is the best
way. When the chassis comes out of the DW, it is as pretty as when
it was new. Water isn't harmful to most electronic parts. You have
to bake the radio for 24 hours after doing this kind of treatment.

-Chuck Harris


Joe wrote:
I have gotten a real nasty ones, the only thing that work's best way is to
carefully scrub with elecroststic smoke eater cleaner + final rinse with
distilled water and a good long hot air dry. Its not cheap, about $14 at
Sears.

I hear of some guys on the Heath reflector covering the cans, vfo's, etc and
using the dishwasher.
I have never done this, perhaps it was a joke.
However I do bake enamel on R-390 knobs in the toaster on 175 for a couple
hours

-Joe


"lorentzson" wrote in message
...

I am wondering if there is a tried and true way of getting rid of the

smoke smell out of radios? Would appreciate any and all help. thanks
in advance. cl 73

I find the shower works well, but try and keep the coils dry. I spray
with PH balanced shampoo, let it soak and hot shower it out, a lot of
"it" comes out.

I remember an old TR7A that I picked up from a friend. He threw the dead
roaches and their droppings in for free.
First of all, I gave each of the boards a bath in soapy water. After rinsing
them in clean water, I gave them another soaking in Isopropyl alcohol. It
took 13 gallons of alcohol to clean that radio. There were even roach husks
enmeshed in the PTO gears. I had to complete dismantle that PTO.
After all of that effort, there were still some stains from all of the
droppings that had embedded themselves in the wiring insulation. Too bad
they didn't use teflon insulated wire. When I explained the history of the
radio to the buyer, he couldn't believe that it was ever in that condition.
Good thing that it is just smoke and nicotine, in your case!

Pete

"Ray Collins" *remove wrote in message
...
I find the shower works well, but try and keep the coils dry. I spray
with PH balanced shampoo, let it soak and hot shower it out, a lot of
"it" comes out.

I use Simple Green - 100% strength. Spray, let sit, and rinse with
water. It's supposed to be non-toxic and biodegradeable, too.

I air dry when it's nice and warm outside, or I put it on the sneaker
rack in the dryer, with the heat down way low, for about a half
hour/45 minutes/ or so.

I've found the dishwasher can be a bit too vigorous. Also, there's
something personally repugnant about cleaning crap-infested radios in
the same thing you use to wash your dishes and utensuils... (Or is
that vice versa

Danny


On Mon, 23 Feb 2004 07:35:53 GMT, (lorentzson)
wrote:

I am wondering if there is a tried and true way of getting rid of the

smoke smell out of radios? Would appreciate any and all help. thanks
in advance. cl 73

"Danny Stone" wrote

I put it on the sneaker rack in the dryer, with the heat down way low,
for about a half
hour/45 minutes/ or so.

I've found the dishwasher can be a bit too vigorous. Also, there's
something personally repugnant about cleaning crap-infested radios in
the same thing you use to wash your dishes and utensuils...


***** And there's nothing repugnant about the stench of heated sneakers?
:-)

Brian Goldsmith.

Ah Brian,

Good point - but I do not dry my sneakers in the dryer

So far, the boatanchor drying is all I've used it for...Maybe Sears
can use this in their advertising?

On Wed, 25 Feb 2004 07:12:51 GMT, "Brian Goldsmith"
wrote:


"Danny Stone" wrote

I put it on the sneaker rack in the dryer, with the heat down way low,
for about a half
hour/45 minutes/ or so.

I've found the dishwasher can be a bit too vigorous. Also, there's
something personally repugnant about cleaning crap-infested radios in
the same thing you use to wash your dishes and utensuils...


***** And there's nothing repugnant about the stench of heated sneakers?
:-)

Brian Goldsmith.

In article , "Kevin, VE1TV"
writes:

I'm really surprised that no one has observed that smoke is actually the
reason radios work at all. I recall being taught that once the smoke is
released, the radio usually stops working. I'm pretty sure the smoke is
contained inside those little glass bottles...

No, glass bottles are unique in that they don't run on smoke, unlike their
sorry-state and disintegrated-circuit replacements, which are notorious for
losing their smoke at just the wrong moment.

In BA radios, the smoke is held within the transformers and resistors, and
sometimes the 'lytic caps. I've been there when it escaped.

"In a vacuum, noone can smell your smoke ... " --Mike K.

Oscar loves trash, but hates Spam! Delete him to reply to me.

Mike Knudsen wrote:
In article , "Kevin, VE1TV"
writes:

I'm really surprised that no one has observed that smoke is actually the
reason radios work at all. I recall being taught that once the smoke is
released, the radio usually stops working. I'm pretty sure the smoke is
contained inside those little glass bottles...

No, glass bottles are unique in that they don't run on smoke, unlike their
sorry-state and disintegrated-circuit replacements, which are notorious for
losing their smoke at just the wrong moment.

In BA radios, the smoke is held within the transformers and resistors, and
sometimes the 'lytic caps. I've been there when it escaped.

"In a vacuum, noone can smell your smoke ... " --Mike K.

I'd always thought that with glowbottle gear, the smoke had to be
present, but kept out of the glowbottles. I suspect that's why so
many hams smoked, and how so many older rigs ended up with that golden
brown color distributed so evenly: they've supplied the magic smoke.

--
Another of my pet peeves is the use of random special characters in names,
e.g. SQL*Forms. I pronounce that one "squeal splat forms" - sort of sounds
like roadkill, doesn't it?
-- Charlie Gibbs