Yesterday a good friend (but regular smoker) dropped off one of those
USB/PC oscilloscopes. Bringing it in the house reminded me how much
stuff from his place stinks of smoke, because they both smoke (and
probably the only of my friends that do). ;-(

So, last night I stripped the unit down and washed the case and all
the cables / probes in hot soapy water, dried it all with some paper
towel and left it on an electric radiator on low overnight (to ensure
it's all dried), but *I* can still smell the 'the smell' on the cables
(especially) and things like the rubber front and back moldings. I
didn't notice any of the typical yellow gungy film you often see on
heavily contaminated stuff as I think all the cables were in a
cardboard box, so it really is the smell, rather than the gunge.

Now I've had a Google and watched stuff on Youtube and seen all sorts
of solutions that were confirmed as working by some but then not by
others and there is a good chance the success of any outcome may
depend on many things (depth of exposure to the smoke, material
concerned etc).

Like, washing it all down with white vinegar (don't have any atm) or
putting it with some 'Baking Soda' (is that 'Bicarbonate of soda',
don't have any of that either) but how would these work better than
washing any contamination off the stuff with hot soapy water?

So, can anyone explain at a molecular level what's happened (how this
habit has impregnated things like the plastic insulated cables) and so
help me understand how things like vinegar or baking soda might
completely remove the smell please?

My next step would be to put it all out on a try and leave it out in
the sun (UV / fresh air) but the weather is a bit unpredictable atm.
;-(

Whilst this scope and cables is 'better' after the washing, because
it's something you typically use close up, especially the probes, I
really don't want that smell under my nose every time I use it). ;-(

I'm particularly interested in solution as a while ago he gave me an
old TFT TV (that might be a bit intermittent ... and that's been in
the shed since he gave it to me in the hope it de-fumigates over
time). If it doesn't, I can imagine I could get the back off and wash
/ treat that (in the shower) but not something I'd want to do with the
actual screen or electronics, particularly if it doesn't help much?
;-(

Cheers, T i m