Getting the smoke smell out of a printer

AtomBomb

So I bought one of these on Friday:



It's a pretty big dot matrix printer, about 3.5' wide or so. I bought it from a guy who lives in a tiny apartment that is sealed up from the outside world. He seemed to spend most of his day blowing cigarette smoke directly into the printer. On Friday I cleaned everything I could get to with these Clorox wipes that I found in the office. I pulled the sides off as well and cleaned all that out. I then opened all the panels and let it sit like that over the weekend. Coming in today I would say that it is better, but it's still pretty rank. My only other idea is to take it home and stick it outside in the sun. It's looking overcast today though so I can't try that right now, and I don't know that it will work. Anyone have any good ways to get the funk out of this thing?

Ruckus

AtomBomb wrote: »

So I bought one of these on Friday:



It's a pretty big dot matrix printer, about 3.5' wide or so. I bought it from a guy who lives in a tiny apartment that is sealed up from the outside world. He seemed to spend most of his day blowing cigarette smoke directly into the printer. On Friday I cleaned everything I could get to with these Clorox wipes that I found in the office. I pulled the sides off as well and cleaned all that out. I then opened all the panels and let it sit like that over the weekend. Coming in today I would say that it is better, but it's still pretty rank. My only other idea is to take it home and stick it outside in the sun. It's looking overcast today though so I can't try that right now, and I don't know that it will work. Anyone have any good ways to get the funk out of this thing?

You could try sticking a box of baking soda in/on it. That may gradually absorb the smell.

AtomBomb

I'll give that a shot. I'm tempted to take it home and put it outside with a bunch of nag champa sticks burning around it. I'd rather have it smell like nothing, but I guess incense would be preferable to stale smoke.

DiscoZombie

what do you want with a smelly old dot matrix printer anyway? a brand new low-end inkjet printer is like $20 these days isn't it?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2000270038%204025&name=%2425%20-%20%2450

adenx

Maybe he needs it for the physical impact necessary for a multi-part form/stationary or the nifty tractor feed paper. Not to mention the replacement inkjet cartridges costs are much greater.

AtomBomb

Adenx got it right. We need these for multi-part forms and financial stuff that prints on paper that is 15" x 11" (and is still crowded on that). Plus, we run so much stuff through these that we would kill all but the most expensive printers, and the ribbons for these are like $3.