This was another interesting Craigslist find – I saw a PC case in the computer section for sale. It had only one picture, showing the case with the side off and the case stuffed with PSUs, optical drives, and other cables. The price was $1. This made me think it's one of those listings where the seller actually puts $1 for the price on purpose just to lure people to click on the post, but then asks for a higher price. So I passed the post several times. Eventually, the post got taken down in a week or two.
After another two weeks, the post got re-listed again with the same picture. This time, however, I saw a PSU I was always curious to get: a HEC Orion HP585D, which is essentially the same thing as my trusty ThermalTake TR430W XP-550NP, minus the input EMI/RFI filtering. So I got curious and sent an email to the poster, inquiring about the price.
Turns out, the seller really did only ask for $1 for the whole package of stuff. He explained the only reason he did this is because he didn't want to get bombarded with emails if he posted this in the free section (which actually really is quite common when posting things for free on CL.)
Long story… a bit less longer, I met with the guy and bought the case (with everything inside). I actually gave him $5, just because it felt a little more right than just $1. Not only did the case come with the PSU mentioned above, but there was also a 5.25” floppy drive in there! I've been looking for one of those for a while!
Anyways, I also asked the seller if the case was stored anywhere, where it could have picked up pests, such as termites, roaches, bedbugs, etc. Seller said no, but he said the case was stored in his garage where they did have mice before. So he said… (ok, RJARRRPCGP, you better get ready for this one ) … that there might be mice droppings on or in it, but otherwise it should be clean from other pests.
As soon as I got it home, I took it outside for inspection. Sure enough, there were mice droppings on the bottom of the case, and the case also stunk like old piss. Since this was back in December, I left the case outside to catch some “fresh air”. And with last winter's cold temperatures (down to 0°F / -17°C), this was a good way to make sure there really wouldn't be any pests inside it (though upon inspection, I didn't see any.)
In February, we had a few days where the temperatures were pretty warm. So I took advantage of those days to clean the case (actually, it was more of an “upcycle” job than a cleaning.) I stripped the case down to bare metal. The plastics all got a soapy wash with dish detergent, followed by some drying under the sun (UV light does kill bacteria ). But for the metal parts… I really wasn't quite sure what to do. It seems that the mouse piss and poop had caused a bit of corrosion.
With limited time in terms of warm days, I decided that the same soapy wash with detergent and water would be a first good step to disinfect the case. With this done, at least I knew I could bring it in the garage afterwards.
I used the garden hose to wash it, because the case was too bulky to clean in my utility sink. And because I felt it was dirtier than the plastics, I scrubbed it very hard with a cleaning sponge and plenty of detergent.
When it all dried out, this is how the metal parts looked:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1539921580
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1539921580
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1539921580
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1539921580
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1539921580
Not bad, right? … until you looked closer inside, near the drive bays:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1539921580
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1539921580
Yeah, that mouse piss sure did some damage. Two of the three PSUs stuffed in the case also had some corrosion from that. One of these PSUs was a fairly gutless ATX unit (probably will post it sometime in the future), so I decided to do a bit of experimenting on it.
From experience with my dumpster-picked and roach-pooped HP NetServer E-800, I knew that regular store-bought spray paint isn't going to work well here. It seems that the regular sprays just don't hold well onto metal – i.e. the paint easily chips and peels. I noticed this on the HP NetServer case even after the paint was freshly painted. And after several years, the rusts spots on it from the roach droppings came right back through the paint and made it flake of.
So with this ATX case, I decided to do something a little different – latex paint. I know latex paint isn't exactly suitable for metal (nor would it look good when brushed/rolled onto the surface), but as long as it sticks to the case and doesn't let the rust come back through, I would be happy.
Thus, I first tried painting the metal case top of the “guinea pig” gutless PSU mentioned above. After two days of drying, the paint stuck well and turned out looking alright (I actually tried several different colors on it.) Compared to the spray paint on my NetServer case, I couldn't easily nick or peel the latex paint off – especially parts where I applied a thicker layer of paint.
After another two weeks, the post got re-listed again with the same picture. This time, however, I saw a PSU I was always curious to get: a HEC Orion HP585D, which is essentially the same thing as my trusty ThermalTake TR430W XP-550NP, minus the input EMI/RFI filtering. So I got curious and sent an email to the poster, inquiring about the price.
Turns out, the seller really did only ask for $1 for the whole package of stuff. He explained the only reason he did this is because he didn't want to get bombarded with emails if he posted this in the free section (which actually really is quite common when posting things for free on CL.)
Long story… a bit less longer, I met with the guy and bought the case (with everything inside). I actually gave him $5, just because it felt a little more right than just $1. Not only did the case come with the PSU mentioned above, but there was also a 5.25” floppy drive in there! I've been looking for one of those for a while!
Anyways, I also asked the seller if the case was stored anywhere, where it could have picked up pests, such as termites, roaches, bedbugs, etc. Seller said no, but he said the case was stored in his garage where they did have mice before. So he said… (ok, RJARRRPCGP, you better get ready for this one ) … that there might be mice droppings on or in it, but otherwise it should be clean from other pests.
As soon as I got it home, I took it outside for inspection. Sure enough, there were mice droppings on the bottom of the case, and the case also stunk like old piss. Since this was back in December, I left the case outside to catch some “fresh air”. And with last winter's cold temperatures (down to 0°F / -17°C), this was a good way to make sure there really wouldn't be any pests inside it (though upon inspection, I didn't see any.)
In February, we had a few days where the temperatures were pretty warm. So I took advantage of those days to clean the case (actually, it was more of an “upcycle” job than a cleaning.) I stripped the case down to bare metal. The plastics all got a soapy wash with dish detergent, followed by some drying under the sun (UV light does kill bacteria ). But for the metal parts… I really wasn't quite sure what to do. It seems that the mouse piss and poop had caused a bit of corrosion.
With limited time in terms of warm days, I decided that the same soapy wash with detergent and water would be a first good step to disinfect the case. With this done, at least I knew I could bring it in the garage afterwards.
I used the garden hose to wash it, because the case was too bulky to clean in my utility sink. And because I felt it was dirtier than the plastics, I scrubbed it very hard with a cleaning sponge and plenty of detergent.
When it all dried out, this is how the metal parts looked:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1539921580
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1539921580
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1539921580
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1539921580
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1539921580
Not bad, right? … until you looked closer inside, near the drive bays:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1539921580
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1539921580
Yeah, that mouse piss sure did some damage. Two of the three PSUs stuffed in the case also had some corrosion from that. One of these PSUs was a fairly gutless ATX unit (probably will post it sometime in the future), so I decided to do a bit of experimenting on it.
From experience with my dumpster-picked and roach-pooped HP NetServer E-800, I knew that regular store-bought spray paint isn't going to work well here. It seems that the regular sprays just don't hold well onto metal – i.e. the paint easily chips and peels. I noticed this on the HP NetServer case even after the paint was freshly painted. And after several years, the rusts spots on it from the roach droppings came right back through the paint and made it flake of.
So with this ATX case, I decided to do something a little different – latex paint. I know latex paint isn't exactly suitable for metal (nor would it look good when brushed/rolled onto the surface), but as long as it sticks to the case and doesn't let the rust come back through, I would be happy.
Thus, I first tried painting the metal case top of the “guinea pig” gutless PSU mentioned above. After two days of drying, the paint stuck well and turned out looking alright (I actually tried several different colors on it.) Compared to the spray paint on my NetServer case, I couldn't easily nick or peel the latex paint off – especially parts where I applied a thicker layer of paint.
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