Having just spent the last five minutes picking the dirt out of the inner gubbings of my mouse (computer mouse that is...), inspiration struck... It goes a little like this, i envisage a mouse ball sized ball, with a rough surface, that is inserted into the ball compartment of my mouse, and spins at a high speed thus dislodging said crud! I can already hear the doubters crying "optical", but i am at work, where the budget obviously cannot stretch to such luxuries, and we are grounded firmly in the stone age with our mechanical ball mice.-- MikeOliver, Apr 01 2004 Mouse Cleaning Kit http://www.mycables.../sku/M-CLEANKIT.htmNot the one I used, but just about the same. [oxen crossing, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] Another one. http://www.mycables...S-025.htm?x=20&y=11If you need to really grind out the crud [oxen crossing, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] Roller scrapers http://www.halfbake...a/Roller_20scrapersPositively shameless self-promotion. Move along, move along. [phoenix, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] What annoyes me is when i remove the mouse ball and start to remove the dirt from inside my cursor goes all crazy. Funny there is'nt a mechanism where by when the mouse is inverted the damn cursor stops moving.-- nomadic_wonderer, Apr 01 2004 That would effectively kill Australian mice!-- MikeOliver, Apr 01 2004 nm: you could always clean the mouse when the computer is off.-- DrCurry, Apr 01 2004 You do realise the idea is not a way of stopping the cursor moving whilst you clean it? It's just the annos are moving in that direction...-- MikeOliver, Apr 01 2004 [DrCurry] you maintain your position as the king of eloquent solutions!
I mean why did i not think of it. All i need to do is close all applications (knowing that I tend to get most miffed with my mouse when i am in between a game and the controller is not responding) then i shut down and clean my mouse. And when that is done i reboot my PC and Voila, my mouse is clean.
Thank you.-- nomadic_wonderer, Apr 01 2004 Or just unplug your mouse...-- MikeOliver, Apr 01 2004 What Koresh said. I don't think you can even still buy ball mice, can you?-- waugsqueke, Apr 01 2004 Baked. I bought one for about $15. The ball was rough and absorbent, and you drenched it with cleaning fluid, rolled it around on the special mouse pad. Worked OK, but only used it a few times.
I switched to an optical mouse, and I hate it for mechanical drawing when I'm trying to pick a point and the damn cursor jumps all around where I want to go.-- oxen crossing, Apr 01 2004 Yes, waugs, you can. Unfortunately my employer just bought about a million of them from Dell. (A million is a guess, but not an exageration.)-- swamilad, Apr 01 2004 Budget issues...I just presented that I spend an average of 5 minutes a week cleaning my mouse at ~$100/hr (I don't see that much, that's what the department pays for me after taxes, benefits, union dues, etc), a $20 optical mouse will pay for itself in a month, not counting lost productivity and additional frustration due to a clogged ball mouse.-- Freefall, Apr 01 2004 I get about $16, and if I have to clean a mouse and spend an extra 20 minutes at work, I get nothing. We'll keep balls, I'll bet.-- swamilad, Apr 06 2004 You should use a Wacom mouse for mechanical drawing [oxen]. You'll appreciate the control but hate it for regular mouse duties where the optical reigns supreme.
I wonder if a hybrid mouse, one with a mechanical ball but that uses optical to read the ball, would have any advantages. I know that shiny, grained wood surfaces drive the optical mice nuts.-- bristolz, Apr 06 2004 random, halfbakery