Hi all,
 
Just wondering if anyone else has a dust problem in their studio and how do you handle it? Is anyone using air filters/ionizers?
 
I don't mind dusting my instruments, etc, but am concerned about the air intake filters on my DAW. Every time I turn around they're covered in dust and crud. We keep our place clean, but live in the country. I don't know if that means we have more dust than our city dwelling brethern or not.
 
Just curious.

But the dust is from you anyway... You need to wear a full suit and mask...

I just googled "dust."
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust
 
So, yeah, I suppose external dust could be a problem. I live in a modern brick built house in the UK with well sealed windows and doors, so dust coming from outside has never been a problem, even when we get those dust storms blowing in from Europe and north Africa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirocco)

I usually keep my windows shut and use a good air filter for my A/C which helps some. Part of the problem seems to be that electronics equipment can harbor opposite charges which in turn, attracts dust charged the other way. Wiping things down with an anti-static cloth can help. Nothing will completely eliminate it since there will always be some small particulate floating around in the air...unless you set up in a clean room.
 
One suggestion concerning your DAW......place a small filter over the air intake. Might not look attractive but it helps. 

If it's that bad, you also need to regularly clean the inside of your PC, especially the fins of the various heatsinks (the big one under the fan on the CPU, the graphics card, the motherboard hubs, etc. For this I use compressed air cans and hold the vacuum cleaner nozzle in the vicinity to suck up the dust you've unsettled with the compressed air. If you look at the fins on the CPU, it's amazing how much dust is trapped in there.  This reduces the heat escape from the CPU, and therefore increases the CPU running temperature. Also pay attention to the circuit boards, brushing with a soft brush (I use a 1 inch pure bristle pain brush (never been used for painting!)). Dust can build up on boards and over time may cause a conductance between adjacent tracks of the buses.
 
To do all this, turn all power off, but if possible, use an earth strap on your wrist and connect to the chassis of the machine.  This assumes the chassis of the machine is earthed. If you disconnected from the power supply, it won't be, so if you want to be really precise about this, set up a "dummy" power lead which has only the earth connected (not the live/neutral feeds) and connect this to the machine for the operation. (The lead is otherwise connected to the wall socket as normal, but only for the earth connection.  If you're in any way dubious about electrics at this level, leave this bit out, but be careful what you touch in the PC.
 
Re - static - that dust has to go somewhere, so why not have a static charged surface somewhere to attract it? ... probably not that practical!
 
Re - compressed air canisters. This part of the operation may cause some liquified accelerant to be expelled from the canister. This is Ok, but leave it a few minuted to completely vapourize and dry before turning the PC back on.
 
Hope that helps
jdf
 
EDIT - actually - thinking about it - that's probably not liquified accelerant, it's probably natural water vapour in the air condensing on the rapidly cooled, rapidly reduced pressure of the air jet from the canister.

Wonderful suggestions Jerry! 
 
I once worked in an electroinics repair shop where we regularly took equipment outside and gave it a good cleaning with compressed air.
I have seen electronic equipment work great covered with dust. Dust in and of itself is fairly neutral as a conductor. Dust is basically very fine dirt with possibly some pollen mixed in...at least in the spring when pollens are especially bad. There is the very slight possiblity there could be some kind of  microscopic conductive minerals too like aluminum. I would say this is very slight though because to be light enough to float only the lighter things are airborne. Even though dust is neutral as a conductor it can be charged and this charge is what attracts it to electronics equipment. 
 
Several things need to happen to seriously affect equipment. The dust must somehow become conductive AND bridge across a connection to cause a short circuit. One of my computers has been running for 5 years and has a nice little bit of dust in it but still not enough to cause any major concern. I guess you can tell I don't get too upset about a little dust :)
 
The last time I seriously cleaned a computer I did everything I knew to do. I discharged static. I made sure everything was grounded properly. I discharged static. I used powerful and moisture free compressed air from an air compressor OUTSIDE  ( so I wasn't blowing the dust around in my space to simply settle again).
 
I felt quite proud of myself with a nice clean computer. I plugged it all back in and my firewire didn't work..to this day I don't know what killed the firewire board...so now I really hesitate to touch my partially dusty computer. It ended up costing me a new firewire card.

There were also some good suggestions here --> http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3195149

Yes, whilst dust itself is not conductive, it forms a bridge for airborne moisture (i.e. "slightly dampened dust"), and that can cause slight conductance, especially over the long run of parallel bus tracks.  It's very slight, but is a possible threat. It's not like it will distort audio signals, because of course we are dealing with digital stuff at this level. But issues here could be distorted pulses leading to mis-readings and potential retransmissions (since the on board protocols are using CRC and similar error checking/correction functions), thereby causing reduction in message handling efficiency on the board.
 
jdf

Dust layers can prevent cooling and cause fire/overheating hazard. That, I think, could be even bigger risk than conductivity.
 

I like my mixes hot ... but not that hot!