Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!olivea!isc-br!jimc
From: jimc@isc-br.ISC-BR.COM (Jim Cathey)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: motherboards in the dishwasher?
Message-ID: <3084@isc-br.ISC-BR.COM>
Date: 14 May 91 19:51:31 GMT
References: <0094836B.DA657A80@Eagle.oscs.montana.edu> <6a7gbs@rpi.edu> <2053@kuling.UUCP>
Organization: ISC-Bunker Ramo, An Olivetti Company
Lines: 37

In article <2053@kuling.UUCP> rolande@kuling.UUCP (Roland Eriksson) writes:
>WD-40 if *GREAT* anything technical that is not working the way it should
>works BETTER with a few drops :-). The ozone may go away or i might get
>cancer or something, but i works wonder for any kind of contact problems.
>It is good for old clocks too. And it smells nice too.

Gack.  WD-40 is something like 40 weight motor oil with a solvent in it.
After a while the solvent evaporates leaving this gummy oily residue all
over the place.  It's even stickier than what was there before you sprayed
it all over.  I've 'ruined' stuff with this.  Ruined means that I had to
_really_ take things apart and clean properly.  Much more trouble than just
doing it right in the first place.  (For an old clock, I'd use some sort of
real solvent, followed by proper lubrication using a fine machine oil.)

>IMHO use water for cleaning the keyboard, and use WD-40 afterwards to fix
>it if it does not work.

Water's cool.  Just save WD-40 for what it's good for:  Cutting into rusty
car parts and door hinges, curing squeaks in large machinery, air freshener...

For a keyboard, I'd use just water (if it will cut whatever), followed by
maybe an ethyl or isopropyl alcohol rinse and dry.  It is crucial that prompt
_complete_ drying take place.  This will probably involve disassembly of
the keyboard.  I "pepsi-syndromed" an old computer of mine, and tub-dunked
the keyboard to get it off.  It took days to dry by itself before it
worked again, and it stopped working after a few more weeks.  I ended up
taking _every_ little keyswitch apart (after desoldering them from the board)
and cleaning the green corrosion off the contacts in the switches.  Yuck.

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