Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: re-fillable air dusters

This is topic re-fillable air dusters in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Bryan M. Montgomery (Member # 4412) on 09-04-2007, 01:17 AM:

Has anyone tried the re-fillable air dusters out there? I know Kinetronics used to make a set they called the RAC system I believe, anyone have any experience with this or other systems?
We can no longer order the disposable canned air dusters anymore and I was trying to come up with a solution to provide a portable compressed air source for between show cleaning. Any and all ideas will be appreciated. [thumbsup]

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 09-04-2007, 02:24 AM:

At one time a lot of the guys I hung around with in the NY SMPTE chapter were really into using compressed air as a cleaning method and many even had air compressors with hoses that ran across the front of the booth with connector outlets at key spots so they could connect a portable hose that had a nozzel on the end. I even got one put in our big booth with a mechanical roll-up hose caddy that held 25ft of hose. You could just pull it out as needed and go anywhere in the booth you wanted with it.

Come to discover, both by my own observation as well as by comments on this forum, that using compressed air is not really a good way to clean. In fact, it can force dust and debris into places where you don't want it. If you use it with the lens in place it can force particulate with considerable force at the lens surface. In short it is not a good idea. Much better would be to use a good vacumm cleaner with a small brush head. We've found this is a lot more effective in removing dirt. Maybe not as convenient as a small can of disposible compressed air, but a better menthod.

We still use the air compressor -- we hook a liquid sprayer to it and when we are doing a full cleaning, we put ECCO 1500 cleaner in the sprayer and spray down the working side of the machines. You can adjust the amount and quality of the atomizer spray so the cleaner can be put in just the right area and then wiped down. You can also put air tools on the end of the hose if you like, and although we've toyed with that idea, we've not yet found a practical need for it.

But we abandoned compressed air for blowing dirt. Anything you can blow away, you can wipe away with rags and now they even use that monofiber material that dirt clings very well to.

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 09-04-2007, 02:53 AM:

I tend to agree with Frank on this; there are times when air can be useful, but in most circumstances there are better ways. If you blow the dust away it will just settle on something else; it's better to remove it altogether.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 09-04-2007, 06:15 AM:

The one time I like to have compressed air is to get a bit of fuzz that may fall on the aperture while the film is running...particularly for 16mm. In fact, some machines have a means to hook up air to the machine and will direct the air to the aperture! (Kinoton FP18 comes to mind).

Steve

Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 09-04-2007, 03:17 PM:

This thread (C02 to clean projectors...Pro or Con?) covered this issue in some detail.

--jhawk