Cleaning Your Mice Wheels?

frink_exp asks: "Cleaning mouse balls (and the rollers they contact) has been the source of many a pun and the subject of countless junk e-mail messages. As more optical mice replace their mechanical kin, such hygiene is becoming unnecessary. However, the mouse wheel is nearly as common as the mouse itself and human hands are grubby, sweaty, oily appendages. Invariably, a nice coating of gunk envelops the wheel. Sometimes it's just unsightly, but at it's worst, it'll sap the rubber wheel of all its grip making it difficult to scroll. Cleaning the wheel can be awkward as it tends to spin and unlike mouse balls, it doesn't just pop out (rehashing of the balls joke intended). The best method I've found is scraping sideways, parallel to the wheel's axis of rotation, slowly working my way around the whole wheel. This is tedious and annoying. Is this a common affliction? What is a better, easier way to clean the mouse wheel? Solvents? A wheel brush? Fire?"

Comments

Open It Up

[RzUpAnmsCwrds]

Most mice (especially optical mice) only have a couple of screws on the bottom. Open it up and pop the little wheel out, then wash and dry it. If you hate the clickiness that the wheel has (as I do), or the weight that Logitech inserts into their optical mice (as I do), now would be a good time to remove them. Be sure to keep all the little parts handy.

"The Field"

[CharlieG]

Yep, designing "stuff" to work out in the field is hard.

WAY back when, starting during the Summer between HS and college, and continuing through college, I worked building and putting up crane systems. You know, the kind that looks like a moving bridge that you see in movies all the time

Man, that job was rough on men and equipment. The joke is, as rough as that job was, my next job required me to build stuff for the military. There is an expression - "Grunt Proof". The average "Grunt" is a heck of a lot smarter than folks give him credit for. It's just that he's living outdoors, has to lug around everything, is in a rough environment, and given a choice between carrying two tools that do one job each (perfectly), or one tool that does two jobs "well enough", that weighes 1/2 as much, he'll take the 1 tool, and some more ammo - as the ammo will keep him alive. Kinda makes it hard on your gear, as they will figure out how to break things that you never thought of