Dusting gear and turntable

Having destroyed a needle trying to clean my TT, got more of a hands off approach now. Also never going to buy anything Piano Black again! Impossible to keep clean. 

Actually used car care products on my TT, got a ceramic spray, that I spray on a MF towel then clean all my gear with that. Wood cleaner for the rack, and wood parts. 

Every once in a while, I'll just bring in my portable air compressor, use that to blow everything out. It's amazing how dust gets everywhere, even with a TT cover on, generally being in a clean room. But I got a kid and 2 dogs.

@dwette thanks for the lead.  However, 400 bucks for a dust cover?  Probably more for custom jobs?  If you're handy and have the appropriate tools, you can buy plexiglass panels from a building supplies store, cut 'em down with a glass cutter and do the appropriate joinery yourself, thereby avoiding the labor charge.  The computer & office equipment dust covers are way cheaper, overall, as long as you don't mind the aesthetics issue.  Still, thanks for the lead!

P.S.  Arts & Crafts stores like Michael's sometime have plexiglass cases in various sizes that you could use as a dust cover for a whole lot cheaper.

@oldaudiophile hey, you asked, so I answered. 

I don't bother with a dust cover. I wouldn't be able to fit one for my turntable anyway, and it's really not a big problem.

Greetings all,

I use a vacuum cleaner micro adaptor kit that I bought at Harbor Freight along with Swiffers. The vacuum micro fittings work very well for my tube equipment. 

I have a custom cloth cover for the dust cover of my old SOTA Star Sapphire.  I don't recall who made it, but it's nice not to have to dust the turntable's acrylic dust cover often.

I use a combination of my vacuum and impregnated dust rags for dusting the gear racks.  There are some tight spaces on the sides of the gear that is in enclosed cabinets that can be hard to reach, especially for gear that has rackmount facies, but that dust on the shelves is not all that harmful.

An important bit of occasional maintenance is to open the covers of my amps and blow out the dust inside.  I've only done this once in the 35 years I've had them.  I keep clear plastic covers on them when they're not on, so that reduces the dust accumulation externally and internally.