Dust

[nukie]

You know those pesky bits that settle between your components on your shiny new workbench? But you can't get rid(vacuum/sweep/ wipe) of them before you pickup the components which u will be laying out again in the next few hours.

Build a clean room? Wear bunny suits? What's your solution? How do you deal with them?

[Rerouter]

compressed air, some slight moisture is good on the esd side, bad if reflowing or high impedence parts, and vice versa :/

[Mechatrommer]

But you can't get rid(vacuum/sweep/ wipe) of them before you pickup the components which u will be laying out again in the next few hours.

i accepted the truth:
1) there's no other way given my limitation.
2) i need to clean up all the components out of the desk, move them away or cover them before cleaning, sweeping or blowing, esp smd and small parts.
3) dont clean the desk if you are working on something until you do #2

as rerouter said, i bought one compressor and a blower head (controllable blowing speed mind you?) specifically for this job.

Build a clean room? Wear bunny suits? What's your solution? How do you deal with them?

if you have the luxury which i dont. another cheaper solution will be closed tight air conditioned room. i believe many people can afford which i still cant.

[sacherjj]

Use an ionizer near your bench.  This does wonders to drop dust out of the air.  Once they started using them in the print shop that my Dad used to manage (large paper roll and large sheet offset printing), it considerably dropped the dust level.   The paper unrolling at a fairly high rate of speed, flung a load of dust into the air from the edges of the roll.  This dropped it right to the floor, where they just swept it up daily.

I use smaller ionizer and purifier in many places of our house and don't have to dust nearly as often in those locations.

[ptricks]

ionizer is a good solution and something you can build easily. You can also build an electronic air purifier , uses two metal plates separated by air and charged with high voltage , small fan blows air across plates,  when the air passes through ,dust attaches to the plates,

[Short Circuit]

Get rid of dust generating furtinure

[nukie]

Are ionizers safe for health? I would like to try it.

[M. András]

ionizer is a good solution and something you can build easily. You can also build an electronic air purifier , uses two metal plates separated by air and charged with high voltage , small fan blows air across plates,  when the air passes through ,dust attaches to the plates,

define high voltage please and ac or dc?

[ptricks]

define high voltage please and ac or dc?

High voltage for these is usually DC and a minimum of about 4KV.

[ptricks]

Are ionizers safe for health? I would like to try it.

Yes they are safe as long as you keep it reasonable. Where ionizers are not safe is when you have too high a voltage with too much current and that can produce ozone, which is dangerous to most living things. Ions though are harmless.

Some of the benefits of negative ions
http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/negative-ions-create-positive-vibes

DIY neg ion generator using a 555
http://dif-doityourself.weebly.com/3--negative-ion-generator.html

[G7PSK]

Get an electrostatic dust collector. My father has one in his darkroom. It's a box with a HV transformer connected to a number of plates that air is drawn over by a fan, every now and again it needs to be taken out and cleaned it is quite surprising how much dust is collected.

[nukie]

That's good idea I have never heard of a electrostatic dust collector except for air cleaners with actual filters. Is this esd safe when used near an electronics workbench?

[T4P]

It's not a electrostatic dust collector per se, but just a ion generator with a fan blowing over it
And ... THIS IS NOT A ESD GENERATOR.

[vk6zgo]

You know those pesky bits that settle between your components on your shiny new workbench? But you can't get rid(vacuum/sweep/ wipe) of them before you pickup the components which u will be laying out again in the next few hours.

Build a clean room? Wear bunny suits? What's your solution? How do you deal with them?

Out in the big,bitey,dirty world where real,grownup Techs & EEs live out their miserable existence,Electronic equipment will happily sit in racks for 20 or so years,gathering dust.

If we are not working with optics of high accuracy mechanical components,we just have to come to terms with the fact that "clean rooms" are for NASA & the like,& luckily,most of the stuff we work with is affected very little by dust.

[G7PSK]

It's not a electrostatic dust collector per se, but just a ion generator with a fan blowing over it
And ... THIS IS NOT A ESD GENERATOR.

It is an electrostatic dust and particle collector which is why they fill up with dust. It is also what they are sold for. They work by conveying a charge onto the dust particles which then attach themselves to the metal plates the dust is then removed by knocking the plates after the unit is switched off.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_collector

[T4P]

My bad, i forgot it's a dust collector.