Gregory DG Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 People tend to get defensive when proved wrong. (in general, present company excluded) No one proved anything wrong. You just proved yourselves to be very rude. Guess I'll put you on ignore too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ApolloBoy Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 I usually clean the outside with baby wipes (Yes, baby wipes!) and rubbing alcohol, and clean the inside with rubbing alcohol. Most of the time, the only thing I have to clean off is dust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sku_u Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 I just use soap and water after taking everything electrical out of the unit. I once experimented with using the dishwasher on a shell I had that I didn't care about. I ran the shell through with temperate water and the shell came out looking brand new. I'd never use anything greasy on electronics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
povlok1 Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 since you touched on that,, the HOT water is really the trick.. I have a apartment house and I clean my units in a unrented unit were I have the hot water heater turned up all the way! scalding temps.. really makes a difference when you use the hotest water.. does something to the plastic;) so anyone who has the 'steam' option on ther dishwasher.. that is a great way to go.. I would scrub it first tho.. or.. get it hot... scrub it while its STILL hot.. than steam it again:).. good point sku;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjk7382 Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 How did this thread get unlocked. I have never seen a thread get locked and then unlocked. I am not trying to tell anyone what to do in this thread, but there are some good suggestions on trying to make your 2600 look like new instaid of just shiny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
povlok1 Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 I promised to make peace and keep the thread on topic;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ApolloBoy Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 People tend to get defensive when proved wrong. (in general, present company excluded) No one proved anything wrong. You just proved yourselves to be very rude. Guess I'll put you on ignore too. Oh c'mon! Don't be mad at him! He said he was sorry! People... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjk7382 Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 People tend to get defensive when proved wrong. (in general, present company excluded) No one proved anything wrong. You just proved yourselves to be very rude. Guess I'll put you on ignore too. Oh c'mon! Don't be mad at him! He said he was sorry! People... Are you talking to me? I am not mad at anyone. I have never put anyone on ignore, and I don't plan on it. I think people take things way too seriously sometimes. Just sit back and let it slide. Peace on earth (or at least in this thread ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mock Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 you guys crack me up...lmao...this is the best one I've read in a long time. Viva La Armor All! I agree with CPUWIZ, you two should move to Hawaii and get married...lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ApolloBoy Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 People tend to get defensive when proved wrong. (in general, present company excluded) No one proved anything wrong. You just proved yourselves to be very rude. Guess I'll put you on ignore too. Oh c'mon! Don't be mad at him! He said he was sorry! People... Are you talking to me? I am not mad at anyone. I have never put anyone on ignore, and I don't plan on it. I think people take things way too seriously sometimes. Just sit back and let it slide. Peace on earth (or at least in this thread ) I know you didn't do anything bad, but I was talking to Greg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buck Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 What I have used, and has worked quite well is Pledge. Ahh, such a lemoney-fresh smell, too! All of the talk about holding in the dust with the armor all concerns me. Pledge is supposedly for dusting(i.e. get RID of the dust)but could some of the stuff povlok1 describes occur with it, too? Like the gummed up contacts? I've been using Pledge on my Ataris Intellivisions Colecovisions...ETC since 1997. I havent had a problem yet. Also, I rescued the first Atari I had ever played from a shed at my uncles lake cabin. It was in such bad shape. Mice had made their home in same shelf that the Atari was sitting. Soap and water were the first things I used to get the Mouse urine and excrement off, but Pledge for the final cleanup worked great. the Atari works fine, too. (Had to get a different AC adaptor, the mice nibbled at that. Anyhow, opinions on Pledge? Buck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
povlok1 Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 plede is a wax.. not to tell you how to do things.. but honestly.. and in a 'freindly' tone.. I wouldnt suggest going that route.. my two cents;) stripping the plastic to the bare clean plastic will restore it to as new of a shine as when it was new;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrRetroGamer Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 I put all the plastic parts in the dishwasher - my wife don't like it but all the shells and cases come out SQUEAKY clean! @CPUWIZ - Aloha! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mechanized Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 I turned an extra Combat cartridge into a cleaner. I found this cloth (I don't know what it is, but it's some sort of sturdy polyblend that I bought at Wal-Mart for like 99 cents a yard) that made a pretty perfect surface for a cleaner. It's smooth with enough surface to give good cleaning friction, and it's sturdy and doesn't leave lint. I opened the Combat cartridge, pulled the chip, and wrapped a strip of the cloth around the chip once, using the chip pins (pushed them right through the cloth) to help keep the cloth taut around the chip. Then I Scotch taped the edges of the cloth down (the edges of mine, in particular, were arranged to be taped down between the rows of chip pins) and finally another strip of tape around the 'neck' of the chip, above the connecting pins where the cleaning surface would be. Reassembled the cartridge and it was done. Just moistened it with some rubbing alcohol and it was ready for use. Here's a lame diagram. ______ |*****| |*****| ^| |^ |.....| Use your imagination, and pretend that's the back of a game board. The asterisks are the pointy pins of the chip, I ended up taping the cloth edges down between them and used the pins to help keep the cloth in place (like... I said... before... eh..). The ^ are markers for where I taped around the 'neck' of the board to further tighten the cloth around the pins (symbolized by the periods). All in all, it was really easy to do (just watch out for the springs, one of mine shot off and I didn't find it until weeks later... I had to devise another spring mechanism for it using a hair rubber band). You just have to find some good cloth for it, which is the harder part. I figure each cloth strip would be good for regular cleaning for a few months, maybe half a year, before it should be changed. It's a useful, inexpensive alternative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mechanized Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 Drat ... my lame diagram got squished! Argh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mechanized Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 Silly me, I should have read the thread a little better... If you opened the machine, cleaned the casing with Windex or something, and a very soft brush to brush the dust out of the crevices, that sounds like it'd work. I've done that with other systems. I don't think I'd put a woody in a dishwasher, though...heh. An NES, SNES, Genesis or something, sure... but I don't think any Atari would fair well in a dishwasher except maybe the Vader. You also might try Goo Gone. It's godly for cleaning a lot of things. I'd say every classic gamer should keep some of it on hand. If you use it carefully, labels can be preserved while getting rid of gunk, crud, adhesives, all sorts of stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 I am not a fan of Armor All on anything, because it leaves an unnatural, glossy finish that far exceeds the sheen of the item when it was new. I also don't like the slimy feel it leaves behind, and the fact that the stuff easily rubs off. I cleaned several Atari 2600 game systems before this year's PhillyClassic by taking them apart and then putting the top half of the case in the dishwasher. This worked extremely well, except that some of the wood grain ended up with waterspots. To prevent this, I suggest removing the systems from the dishwasher as soon as the wash cycle is done, and hand drying them. If you DO leave them in the dishwasher for the dry cycle, make sure that you do not HEAT dry them or they'll probably warp pretty badly. When I was finished, the systems that were in good, physical shape before looked practically brand new, and it sure as heck beat cleaning them by hand (especially since I had about 10 systems to clean!) ..Al Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mock Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 I use low gloss AA...doesn't leave that film at all and it's not overly sined either...works out about right...I still have about half a bottle left...used it in my car back a few years ago ..i don't know if they still make it or not? It does work well after a good cleaning. It also does not collect dust the way the regular AA does. I'm thinking of trying some tire gel on this Vader I just got...it was in a laundry room behind a dryer for years...i should have taken before and after pics....lol....got it all clean now just waiting for the thing to air dry then I'm going to try the tire gel...lmao. I'll let you know how it turns out...lol Mock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
povlok1 Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 Ok.. all you armor all fans;) try this out to teach yourself a tad about the properties of armor all. Spray a small amount of this shine in a bottle on a piece of glass.. than try to whipe the glass clean! you will see how sticky and filmy this stuff is.. you will deff be surprised at how hard it is to get it off the glass. than imagine just a drop of this stuff accidently getting on one of your brass contacts in the load slot. also,, glass is nonporous, plastic is very porous,, you hit it with Armour all and its ther for life unless you bath and scrub it off! Being ther is so much debate over this Ive decided to come off of one of my biggest secrets for cleaning ataris.. even works on one thats been armored many times.. I soak the plastic in VERY hot water.. than while the plastic is hot I pull it out and spray it with Wesley's WhiteWall Cleaner.. I than scrub it with a tire brush,, resoak and rinse.. dry it with a towle while its still hot.. ther you go.. trade secret.. the whitewall cleaner is actually an acid.. be carfull not to get the acid on the Chrome Atari Logo for you can damage it. Ive litterally washed HUNDREDs of ataris this way.. I originally discoverd this trick when I was working for Chrysler, the shops detailers used it on doorpanels and plastic pieces inside the interior of cars.. you would be amazed at what this stuff would do.. so ther you have it.. You want to listen from voice of exsperiance.. great.. this meathod was devised with ALOT of thought and theory and 'trial and error' involved! If you still like 'shine in a can'.. thats kewl .. no sweat off my back.. Whitewall cleaner will take off any buildup of armor all. I never really wanted to give that up for when I started selling my recon'd units on ebay.. shortly after ther started to be 'copicats' on ebay with excerpts taken from my ad. If you notice Stumpy's ads.. ugh.. he toned em down from being advertised as 'reconditioned' after I threated to buy one than sue him for false advertisment;) After my ad alot of sellers started preaching "disassembled and soaked in hot bleach water' (I do put bleach in my soak bath and stated that part in the ad) I also notice people saying proffesionally rebuilt and 'coated with a protectent, or coated with armor all,, you wont find a professional in electronics ever suggesting to put armor all on an electronic devise.. that stuff is for tires and furninture;P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Monkey Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 Now I am going to ask a baby.... "Baby, how do you clean your Atari?" ... Ha! Ha! Thank you, baby! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjk7382 Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 Now I am going to ask a baby.... "Baby, how do you clean your Atari?" ... Ha! Ha! Thank you, baby! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ApolloBoy Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 Now I am going to ask a baby.... "Baby, how do you clean your Atari?" ... Ha! Ha! Thank you, baby! It's based off the "Elmo's World" segment of Seasme Street. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+RichG1972 Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 For the way I use to clean my Atari 2600 systems, boards, wires and console & cintroller plastic see this thread, the thread is about the complete restoration of my 6 switch Atari 2600 system, which wasn't just a cleaning but I had to completely replace all of the electronics and the joystick boards and parts: http://www.atariage.com/forums/viewtopic.p...p=138090#138090 RichG1972 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mock Posted December 13, 2003 Share Posted December 13, 2003 Hey Rich...what are your feelings on Armor All? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjk7382 Posted December 13, 2003 Share Posted December 13, 2003 Hey Rich...what are your feelings on Armor All? You aren't supposed to have pictures in your signiture. It isn't a coincidence that nobody else has them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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