On 3 Nov 2005 06:09:35 -0800, Winfield Hill
wrote:

Ignoramus12686 wrote...

The dirt that remains is stuff that is resistant to vacuuming
and somewhat resistant to scraping. I do not want to use too
much force there.

Nothing wrong soap, water and a brush in selected areas.

Or wipe down with solvent dampened rags. Paint thinner is a suitable
solvent if used sparingly in a well-ventilated area and allowed to dry
thoroughly before lighting off the welder. Disconnect from power
first.

Way OT story about wiping down with solvent dampened rags (not for the
squeamish):

Some years ago I worked with an electrical estimator who had been an
electrician with a large contractor for 20 years or so, and I asked
him why he quit the field work for the office job. Instead of
answering he uncharacteristically went off into a story of a routine
job at some North Jersey factory with the usual loop-fed 3-section
medium voltage switchboard, where two utility feeds enter the end
sections, each of which will connect to half of the plant load and/or
to the center section, which can feed either half of the load. Either
feed is adequate for both loads so any one section can be de-energized
completely without losing power to either half of the load.

This switchboard was indoors but well ventilated with polluted plant
air, so it needed to have its buss bars wiped down with solvent
dampened rags once a year, or the dirt would cake on so thick that the
buss bars would overheat. The estimator's crew was sent out to do
this rather trivial job with several experienced electricians and a
brand new apprentice, first day on the job. Nice kid, everyone liked
him, and when lunch rolled around and the kid had brought his lunch
and didn't have money for the restaurant they all wanted to go to
since he hadn't been paid yet. They offered to buy, but he would not
accept and stayed behind while they went to lunch.

When they returned they could not find the apprentice at first, but
the last of the buss bar in the first section had been cleaned, and
the door to the next section was open. His on the job training had
not gotten to the section lockout procedure yet. They found him on
the floor, solvent dampened rag in hand, unconscious but breathing,
footprints running up the wall behind him nearly to the ceiling. They
rushed him to a hospital where some of the crew saw him the next day,
"swollen to 3 times normal size and skin turned black" was their
possibly exaggerated impression. He said he knew he was dying, and
they gave him the "hang in there you can make it" speech, but he died
three days later.