Preventing LEGO sets from getting dusty

[Lego David]

As someone who likes to collect LEGO sets and display them, I am very frustrated by how quickly my sets get dusty, despite the fact that I try to clean them as often as I can. Is there any way to prevent the sets from collecting dust, or at least slow down the rate at which they get dusty?  This is a really big issue for me that I don't really know how to properly deal with. 

Edited December 3, 2020 by Lego David

[JintaiZ]

Display cases work pretty well for me, but they are really expensive.

[MAB]

Put them in a (closed) display cabinet. Have a fan blowing air away from the sets. Give them a blast of air once a week (away from the display area, no point blowing the dust on to other models). Use an air filter in the room. Remove carpet and have a hard floor. Use blinds instead of curtains with heavy fabric. Take your outdoor shoes off by the first door to the house or outside. Use a decent vacuum cleaner that doesn't recirculate dust. Mop floors instead of vacuuming if you can. Banish the cat/dog.

[hagridshut]

Display cabinet.

[dr_spock]

Dust can also come from your body shedding dead skin cells.  Staying out of the LEGO room could help.

[1963maniac]

3 hours ago, dr_spock said:

Dust can also come from your body shedding dead skin cells.  Staying out of the LEGO room could help.

Oh, I laughed so much!!

[Toastie]

6 hours ago, 1963maniac said:

Oh, I laughed so much!!

I don't like two word replies that much, so a bit of blurb around them:

"Same here"

I simply love @dr_spock's humor.

 

Edit:
Just missed your post: I also love the humor of @MAB.

I knew it: The cats. Damned. They do not only overturn minifigs here and there (first I thought: Call the Ghostbusters; then I remembered: It is "only" a movie) - they actually play with them. Well - what can you expect from brother and sister cat being dumped in a cardboard box at the age of 4 (weeks).
Well - our dog sadly "died" two months ago (terminal cancer with no chance to breathe freely anymore), never made it up to my attic on her own; and with my help never touched anything. We will have a new family member soon though, she will be coming in a truck from Hungary - with many others. 
I will have an eye on her: Don't you dust here!
Other than that: 10 more days. And then we will have to convince the two dumped cats that a dumped dog is as much of a jewel than they all are.
We are very, very excited bout that (>no< joke)

Edited December 3, 2020 by Toastie

[The Stud]

I suffer the same problem @Lego David. I don’t have the space or funds for enclosed display cases, so I have to use furniture polish for my wooden shelves and I find that a small paintbrush helps get the dust off the sets themselves. The bristles are great at getting stuff out from between the studs.

[koalayummies]

1 hour ago, The Stud said:

I suffer the same problem @Lego David. I don’t have the space or funds for enclosed display cases, so I have to use furniture polish for my wooden shelves and I find that a small paintbrush helps get the dust off the sets themselves. The bristles are great at getting stuff out from between the studs.

That's a good tool. When this has come up in the past others have recommended a new makeup brush as well. @MAB's suggested method is good to, take the builds into another room and use a handheld dust blower bulb.

[Merlict]

On 12/4/2020 at 12:53 AM, dr_spock said:

Dust can also come from your body shedding dead skin cells.  Staying out of the LEGO room could help.

I don't know why people are laughing, I have hermetically sealed my Lego room with industrial tape and Flex Seal. 

I can enjoy it through a web cam knowing it will stay perfect forever. 

[Toastie]

16 hours ago, Merlict said:

I have hermetically sealed my Lego room with industrial tape and Flex Seal. 

Wow - how do you get "in" through the webcam and play?

I will have a major "dusting off operation" in my attic rather soon - scheduled to require three+ days.

I do play with the bricks though. Plus there are two cats - they - well - uhmm - play as well.

I need to find out how to operate the vacuum cleaner and the "Swifflers", brushes etc. through a web interface.

Wait ... wrong: Not required when sealed ... with industrial tape, right ? 

Best
Thorsten 

 

Edited December 5, 2020 by Toastie

[ShaydDeGrai]

Shy of a maintaining a vacuum in a sealed display case, I think keeping dust off of Lego is akin to battling entropy itself.  For those without an engineering background, allow me to summarize the three laws of thermodynamics that govern the universe as we understand it:

1) You can't win.

2) You can't break even.

3) You can't stop playing.

The universe WANTS there to be dust on your Lego,  you can learn to live with it, or doom yourself to a never ending battle where what few victories you think you've scored are both short-lived and bought at the price of massive defeats elsewhere. Sorry  

 

 

[Toastie]

@ShaydDeGrai

This is the ultimate explanation why it is as it is with the dust: Entropy. No chance. None - to beat it. Will use that one in class next semester, if you don't mind!

Spoiler

BTW: Been to a clean room facility in the south of Germany last spring, where they make the optics and optics assembly for EUV wafer scanners shipped out lately from the Netherlands -  required to make even more powerful - uhmm - cellphones - I believe. For those interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_ultraviolet_lithography. They have some issues with mirrors and stuff and thought we should have a look.

A clean room would be an option as well - no vacuum required but rather overpressure. However, to get in there it takes about 1 hour - stripping down to your underwear and then putting on fabrics that remind me of HAL and 2001 ... and then waiting for the green light in the air lock. But: No dust in there, for sure.

Plus: Even the first law of Thermodynamics may constitute a serious pain in the butt - dust-wise that is: Imagine a LEGO model that has actually moving parts. Maybe even worse: Propelled by a motor. And imagine, ABS in contact with ABS - relatively moving to each other - with a bit of friction ... charge separation occurring ... irregularly shaped dust particles in an inhomogeneous electrical field ... with Entropy just watching and waiting to go nuts up after Enthalpy has had its fun ... 

Best wishes,
Thorsten

[Murdoch17]

Small paintbrush, only tool I've ever used. Wish I could use some canned air like my dad uses on his projects, but my collection is MUCH bigger and more exposed so I don't think it's feasible to buy that much canned air without people thinking I'm living on planet Spaceball. (It's not canned in Druidia anyway...) 

[MAB]

16 minutes ago, Murdoch17 said:

Small paintbrush, only tool I've ever used. Wish I could use some canned air like my dad uses on his projects, but my collection is MUCH bigger and more exposed so I don't think it's feasible to buy that much canned air without people thinking I'm living on planet Spaceball. (It's not canned in Druidia anyway...) 

Instead of canned air you can use a cheap airbrush compressor instead. Or if you are on a really low budget, a bike pump and old pop bottle.

But do it away from the display area, or it just settles again.

 

Maybe LEGO needs to sell LEGO branded dust to sprinkle on displays. That way, even when dusty, they are purist dusty.

[TeriXeri]

Instead of blowing dust off, I use a small tube + brush attachment for vacuum cleaner (looks like a garden hose with a plastic tube at the end to put in attachements), it's small enough to soak up dust between studded areas, but not strong enough to just suck up attached pieces into it, it's basicly the combination of brush+vacuum.

(Google Micro Vacuum Cleaner Kit to get an idea)

Canned Air and such would just spread the dust and not remove it from the room.

Edited December 8, 2020 by TeriXeri

[Vindicare]

On 12/3/2020 at 5:53 AM, dr_spock said:

Dust can also come from your body shedding dead skin cells.  Staying out of the LEGO room could help.

Next level advice.  Just use your imagination from now on. 

[ks6349]

Very good question.

I have a separate room exclusively for playing and displaying Lego, windows are permanently closed and cannot be opened. Door is normally closed snugly. I do not step into the room immediately after I come back from outside. I only go into the room after I have bathed and eating or drinking is not allowed inside. I don't put anything otherwise than Lego and the table inside the room so as to reduce rate of accumulating dust and dirt. I do not have a pet. Hope this help