This weekend, someone shot fire extinguishers into the mail slots on the ground floor offices. My office area, in the front got hit pretty bad. The office computer was left on so the fan continued blowing the powder around inside and the CD, Zip drives are shot and the keyboard is acting kind o’ wonky. The Studio door was left open and everything had a thick coat of yellow micro-fine powder. All the computer equipment, the DA7 and all the outboard gear was turned off and seems less affected.

After vacuuming and dusting the studio pretty thoroughly, I cranked up the machinery and ran some tests and all seems to be well. Even after I cleaned the place pretty well, the dust continues to precipitate from the air and everything feels gritty. I’m guessing it’s going to take a couple o’ weeks to get things back the normal dusty condition. Is there something I should be doing to prevent the DA7 from being affected by the remaining dust?

Thanks for the help,
Bill Corkery

First thing I would do is go to a fire-extinguisher refill company.

Bring them a sample of the powder and ask them about it. It may be corrosive, or it may just be annoying.

They'll have suggestions for cleaning up.

Rick,

Thanks. I'll be cleaning samples out of the corners of the office for months.

Good suggestion,
Bill

Bill,

Not to make light of your situation... but you should be using forced air to clean-out any un-wanted dirt and dust particles inside the mixer, faders, rotary-controls etc.

The instructions for opening the mixer are posted in the download section of this site under: Replacing Fuses

And then again... you might want to be on the look-out for another DA7 (they're pretty cheap on E-bay).

Good luck,

Sorry to hear it, bcorkery.

Meric,

I did push a can of air through the pots but haven't had a chance to open it up yet.

Thanks,
Bill

When I tell people about it their first question is ususally, "What does someone get out of that?". I have no answer.

You'd have to ask a 5 year old.

bcorkery, any insurance?

About 8 years ago I replaced all of my gear with an insurance money after a similar dusty episode.

Good luck.

Kelly,
Yea, a regular mental monster!

Kecinzer,
I've already put in a claim and The Hartford is being very responsive to me. Fortunatly, it's only the outside office that took the big hit. Dust and tears, so far, are the worst casualties in the studio.

It's spilled milk at this point.

Thanks,
Bill