• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Disintegrating Air Intake/Fan Filter Cloth

Lorne

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2008
Messages
1,164
Location
Chandler, AZ, USA
For those who have found that 25 year old black/brown filter material inside their computers (usually used as an air intake filter), that just seems to disintegrate in your fingers, I've found a replacement that is almost identical, if not identical to the original stuff.

It is: Natural Aire Foam (model KK500), manufacturered by Flanders Precision Aire. I got it at Ace Hardware. It's about $ 7 for a 15" x 24" sheet that you simply cut to size.

I've found the stuff used on an Altos 8000 intake grille, Altos 5/15 intake grille, Osborne Executive fan, and a Kaypro 10 fan. I'm sure it was used on a whole bunch more.
 
Ah yes, DEC loved that stuff, it would seem. The more dense stuff they used to plug gaps in power supplies and cable clips is just as bad, if not worse. Left to its own devices, it just turns to dust. Trying to clean it up with damp cloth turns it into quite an effective black paint ;-)

Reminds me though: there's apparently a specialist foam shop around the corner from me. Must go see if they can get me some of this stuff for my RL02s before my tattered sample pieces totally disintegrate!
 
I've got equipment where the black foam was used as a sound-deadener. What a mess!

I found that the easiest way to clean it up was to use warm water and detergent; the goo that holds it on generally responds to mineral spirits/paint thinner.

As a replacement sound deadener, has anyone tried this stuff?
 
I've got equipment where the black foam was used as a sound-deadener. What a mess!

I found that the easiest way to clean it up was to use warm water and detergent; the goo that holds it on generally responds to mineral spirits/paint thinner.
Almost forgot about that particular application. I have a short rack with two great slabs of the stuff in the side panels. I really ought to get that out before the particles start getting into things that certainly won't agree with them. As you say, even when the foam's off you have that lovely layer of adhesive to deal with. I do have a big bottle of thinners somewhere though - thanks for the tip!

As a replacement sound deadener, has anyone tried this stuff?
I reckon that'd be just the ticket. I'd imagine there's an optimum density and composition for sound deadening, so buying stuff which is sold specifically for the purpose would make sense (although something tells me there'd probably be a premium price attached).
 
filters & dampening

filters & dampening

If you don't care what the replacement filter looks like, you can by register filters at the hardware store (they're white) and trim them to size. They're nice and cheap, and don't disintegrate.

There's some stuff called DynaMat which is used in speaker dampening, http://www.crutchfield.com/S-u4uYUKdqOTh/p_15421100/Dynamat-DynaPad.html
although you can get it other places.
patscc
 
I found that the easiest way to clean it up was to use warm water and detergent; the goo that holds it on generally responds to mineral spirits/paint thinner.

I've found that a vacuum cleaner does the trick. It breaks the foam apart and sucks it up :) I hope that it doesn't screw with my vacuum.. but I'm not that worried about it.
 
Back
Top