Mold, or just grime?

[bundito]

I could use an educated opinion here. The back of my machine is nasty. I think it'd been stored in a garage, based on the amount of rust. Chicago gets rather humid, in case you hadn't heard.

Anyway... have a look, please:



It's the black schmutz I'm concerned about. I pencil-traced each back panel when I took it off. But I didn't need to. The wood underneath is 10 shades lighter, the layout is easy to see.

If it's mold, I don't think a simple light sanding is enough. Or is it? Should I sand it anyway to get it nice and clean regardless? I'm unsure how to "clean" bare, unfinished plywood.

Thanks.


- Dito


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[emmadog]

Many vintages have that black stuff whatever it is. It easily comes off plastic parts but for wood I sand most if not all marks are off and then you can deal it if you want. Don't worry about your pencil lines. The screw/staple holes will remain after sanding to show you where things went.
It's one of those things where you clean up one area or part andIt makes the rest of the machine that much worse in appearance. Especially with the wood but most don't see the rear of it anyway.

[p.opus]

Many vintages have that black stuff whatever it is. It easily comes off plastic parts but for wood I sand most if not all marks are off and then you can deal it if you want. Don't worry about your pencil lines. The screw/staple holes will remain after sanding to show you where things went.
It's one of those things where you clean up one area or part andIt makes the rest of the machine that much worse in appearance. Especially with the wood but most don't see the rear of it anyway.

It's probably mildew. Easy to clean off plastic, not so much wood. But I don't clean the back of mine that heavily. I clean the back up just enough to be fully functional. I concentrate on all the ball paths. I don't look at the back of my machine too much, so I'm not that concerned on how it looks. The front is a different story though.

[luckydog]

would bleach get rid of it???

[DrDark]

Bleach and water ... wipe on, wipe off, done.

[whitedawg]

As already stated bleach and water is the item of the day. Soak a cloth, wring it out and wipe the wood down, as long as you don't saturate it no harm will be done. It's wise to use a cheap throw away paper painter's mask when working with any kind of moulds, dark moulds are the worst. I had a friend who got a serious respiratory ailment from breathing in black mould from a flooded basement renovation. The same goes for mouse and rat droppings, which Ive found in a lot of in machines that have been in storage.

[pachiwall]

As others have stated, bleach. My thought was sand (use a mask as whitedawg suggested) then spray diluted bleach (once again with a mask, as bleach is pretty nasty stuff too!), but wiping it on with a rag is probably good too! Shouldn't be a problem!

[Skydanz]

Hey guys, I am very hesitant to jump in on this subject since so many people have had some success with bleach but please be very careful. It works great on hard non-porous materials but can be harmful to breath in an enclosed space and Chlorine bleach will outgas for some time. There are some outstanding products that kill mold and mildew at the roots but should also be handled with care.
Chlorine Bleach Effects

[luckydog]

the German lady that I worked with for many years would put so much bleach in the mop water for the store, that I would get headaches!!

so, I would either mop the store myself or keep the front doors open when she did

In her small apartment she would use a gallon of bleach a week cleaning,

she was losing her memory and started saying & doing all kinds of goofy things and I'm sure a big cause of that was the bleach and cleaning fumes she inhaled!!

she's In a secure nursing home in Indiana now near her son!

[bundito]

Hey guys, I am very hesitant to jump in on this subject since so many people have had some success with bleach but please be very careful. It works great on hard non-porous materials but can be harmful to breath in an enclosed space and Chlorine bleach will outgas for some time. There are some outstanding products that kill mold and mildew at the roots but should also be handled with care.
Chlorine Bleach Effects

I can't argue with this. I've worked in power plant design for quite a few years. Many use sodium hypochlorite (a/k/a bleach) as part of the water treatment system. Those tanks are located in spots on the site where there's not much vehicle or maintenance traffic. You really don't want one someone driving a forklift into one of them. It's bad luck, like breaking a mirror - only a lot more lethal.

As others have stated, bleach. My thought was sand (use a mask as whitedawg suggested) then spray diluted bleach (once again with a mask, as bleach is pretty nasty stuff too!), but wiping it on with a rag is probably good too! Shouldn't be a problem!

I need some disposable masks anyway. I finally got a proper rotary tool (it's not the "Big D" brand, but Black & Decker) that does up to 40,000RPM. The wire brush attachment is a miracle at removing rust. But that just means I'm shooting a fine spray of iron oxide (a/k/a rust ) particles into the air. Probably don't want to breathe that in, either.

I do want the back to be clean. You should see how I've scrubbed and polished the plastic chutes - did the inventor of Simple Green get his Nobel Prize yet? Hell, I sanded and polished the jackpot lever with Brasso. I'm a huge mechanical nerd, and a lot of my friends are mechanical nerds.

When I get around to adding lights (LEDs), I plan on having a separate switched circuit to illuminate the back. Watching the balls bounce off the pins and into the various holes is cool, but nerds like me (and my friends) will really groove on watching the levers trip and the balls circulate around. I'm hoping I can find spaces inside the kinda-transparent green plastic to sneak in a small LED or two, so it's also lit from the inside. Like I said. Nerd.


-Dito

[browne92]

I did some research about mold after my house flooded. One of the things they stressed is that killing the mold is not enough, you must get rid of it. Seems dead mold spores are just as bad for you as live ones. So you they didn't want you to just wash down the areas with bleach, but you needed to clean up and dispose of the water as well.

To that end, if what you have there is mold, I agree with others about using bleach and wiping it up. Just don't let the cloth sit around till dry and then shake it out. Dispose/wash immediately.

My two cents.