Got yelled at by a collector in Chicago for using compressed air on an old Commodore 64

I was at this retro computer meetup in Chicago last month, just trying to clean up a Commodore 64 I picked up at a thrift store. Had my can of compressed air and was blowing dust out of the keyboard and vents, no big deal. This older guy walks over, turns beet red, and starts shouting at me about how the moisture from the air can damage the chips or cause corrosion. I honestly thought he was kidding at first but nope, he was dead serious. He then spent 20 minutes showing me his method with a soft brush and a vacuum on low suction. Now I feel dumb because I've been doing it wrong for years on all my old systems. Has anyone else had someone call them out like that for something they thought was totally standard practice?

2 comments

2 Comments

wesleyjohnson4d ago

Oh man, I've been there. At a local retro meetup someone gently pulled me aside and showed me their brush setup after I whipped out the compressed air on a TRS-80. Your mileage may vary but I've switched to the soft brush method for anything with socketed chips, just to be safe.

the_sarah3d ago

Wait, so is the spinning brush method actually safer than compressed air? I used to think compressed air was the gold standard until I accidentally knocked a chip loose on an old Amiga, now I'm second-guessing everything. Honestly, your brush setup approach makes a lot more sense to me now for delicate socketed boards.