Ack...why do I want to make my Toughbook Perfect?

I just dropped $100 in parts+shipping at Heartland to replace a scratched DIMM cover, dented rear door, mangled sliding dock cover, some ratty looking/missing plugs, screws, etc.

Last night, I spent an hour dusting and cleaning some sticky stuff that the previous owner left on the laptop case. Now it looks very nice and clean.

For some reason I have this annoying need to make my Toughbook look perfect, I feel as though it is a sickness!!

 

It IS a SICKNESS; there is something seriously wrong with you , man!

Every true ToughBook fan KNOWS you don't take away a ToughBook's battle scars... they are badges of HONOR!!!

mnem
Now now, li'l Tuffy... you know you'll be back on the bench soon enuf, once I get that OLPC software downloaded for Marcus...

 

Yessir... You are surely on the slippery slope of Toughbook ownership!

 

I keep any and all battlescars intact, but I prefer to remove any traces of other people cooties from my machines. Hence they get completely tore down and cleaned. And believe it or not, the dishwasher has been a great cleaning method for any non electrical parts.

 

The dishwasher? I wouldn't do that with any rubber parts. These are made to withstand the heat alright... But some parts are not made to stand then while disassembled. Like the O Rings... But then I guess it depends on how hot your water is and if you use the "fry dry" power eating setting on the dishwasher.

 

lol, this i have to see....

 

Just remember NOT to use any of the popular dishwasher detergents out there. The combination of phosphates(I think that's the guilty party) and bleach attack both magnesium and aluminum; pitting them and leaving a truly hideous powdery crust that is often more trouble to clean than the gook left behind by previous owners.

I learned this lesson with one L400 ages ago...

mnem
Eeeep! It's the Crustinator!

 

Yeah,

and then you run the risk of chemical contamination of your food-eating stuff, too. I knew a guy that cleaned firearms that way, heavy metals + his kidneys = not so good. Took awhile to figure it out, too.

But, if you have a garage, you could buy a used dishwasher, use the proper cleaner, and have one hella small parts washer! That's a fact!!

-Shawn

PS - +1 to the dinged computer crowd. You don't really own anything until you put the first crease in it... afterwards, its' like, 'whatever'. Until then, you kinda creep around with it... you know?

 

Handles, port covers, LCD frames, and larger stuff like that. No o rings or anything. It's been a while but I haven't had any problems with corrosion.

 

mrbungle, its nice to see a fellow in province person liking battlescars on their laptops, never tried the dishwasher but an old ultrasonic cleaner from a jewlers bankruptcy sale sure came in handy for me

 

I don't mind battlescares on my toughbook, but only ones I have caused, whenever I get a new toughbook first thing I do is take it apart and clean it, and then try and replace any really scuffed or scratched parts. I know the toughbook will get scratched, but I don't like looking at other peoples battlescars and wondering what the hell caused them.

 

I just clean my old CF-27 Toughbooks with dollar store glass cleaner and Brasso to get the dents/scuffs out of the white keyboards. All the scratches, dents and chipped paintwork don't really matter to me as long as the keyboard is perfectly clean and the screen is still readable.

I am thinking of painting one though as an experiment...