On 4/8/10, Christian Wacker wrote: >Here's a strange question for you. >My school is preparing the old Icebook lab for sale, but we had some >nasty smelling keybaords.
If you haven't done the whole lot of the Icebooks with the nasty smelling keyboards, I have read that one source is the label on the bottom of the keyboard. More information here: <http://lowendmac.com/menagh/06/1013.html> >We decided to put the whole laptops in a sealed container, with a >small container of vinegar sitting beside the iBooks. Bad, bad idea, as you found out. Vinegar is dilute acetic acid which, although a weak organic acid, has the potential to corrode metal. Exposing the computers to the vapor in a closed environment has probably caused condensation at higher concentrations, and could cause all sorts of havoc. >We just dug them out of the tub today, they've been in there for just >over a week, and we discovered some disheartening news. >The metal around the inside of the battery compartments has corroded >and started creating a whitish foam, and turned the metal itself >brown. Not sure what metal would be used in this spot. Magnesium and zinc will both corrode with acetic acid; aluminum is supposed to be not affected. I would also worry about corrosion of any solder in the circuits of the 'Books, especially if the solder is not of the lead-free variety used in newer electronics. Other metals do corrode with exposure to acetic acid vapors (e.g. - iron). >What I (and my IT coordinator) are curious about is: >Where else is this kind of metal located? >What is it made of (or coated with) >how much could we get for a laptop in this condition, >and how easy is it to clean it up (if this has happened to you?) Virtually all metal acetate salts are water soluble, so distilled or deionized water may help clean up non-electronic surfaces. This may be complicated by reaction with carbon dioxide in the air to make complex molecules that could be less soluble. >If the metal goes in further into the laptop, we'll dissect the worst >of them to discover how deep it runs, and go from there... If you have corrosion in the interior of the 'Books, I would consider them to be junk... - Don -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Books, a group for those using G3 iBooks and PowerBooks (we run a separate list for G4 'Books). The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To leave this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g-books Support for older Macs: http://lowendmac.com/services/
