Re: [LUG] Laptops - and the battery

Cleaning vents - does anyone know of cheap airblasters for chocking to death on when things get a bit clogged? The ones I've seen cost about 10,000 time the price of a similar volume of air for diving.

No.

300ml for around a fiver, and it's very weedy.

A year ago I was hunting around and getting annoyed at the price of these things (and that butane is often a propellant, which seems to be a bit of a risky thing to be blowing around electrical and hot components), and a little light went on in my head. An hour of research later and I'd bought something not a million miles from www.toolbox.co.uk/24-litre-air-compressor-05297-13674-150590 (Just shy of £100, delivered, with a basic airtool set and hoses - everything you need).

That cost about the same as 20 piddly little cans of air that last two minutes. It lives in my garage and is one of my most used tools. The air volume through the basic trigger gun is huge, an entire server can be spotlessly clean in about 30 seconds. It can run more tools, inflate my tyres, spray paint, etc.

I also fitted a connector to an old dry powder fire extinguisher (and painted it black so there was no mistaking it, but boy, was emptying that a horrible job!). And the compressor charges that so I can also bring it into the house if I don't want to move the server - although this will return any server to shiny-new very quickly, and that means a lot of dust. Doing it inside just means it'll get sucked back into the machine anyway.

The difference in performance between such a compressor and a can of air is a sportscar to a bicycle.

It's very satisfying to use. I no longer sweep my garage out, I just blow all the dust and shavings off the desks and off the floor.

And, you know those artistic figurines - fancy dragon statues, wizards, general geek-decoration etc - that are impossible to dust? Two seconds and they're spotless.

Also: manpoints++

I wish I'd bought one years ago. Go and get one, you'll thank me for it!