On Thursday night and Friday morning I took the first steps I had planned toward making the Aurum speaker cable stick to the wall. I used a #2 pencil to mark the right edge of the cable as currently installed, then I removed the cable. Then starting at the bottom instead of the top, I pressed sections of the cable back onto the wall, lined up with the mark I had made. Several times and especially just at the top I use blue painter's tape to hold the cable up while doing the next section.
It turned out that this process made no difference to the length of the cable. Once the cable had been re-attached to the wall, it came to exactly the same height as before, and I ultimately screwed the top terminal block into exactly the same hole I had drilled before.
If I had known it was going to work out like this, I could have skipped this entire procedure and gone on to step 2: rubbing caulk behind the cable. And if I had skipped this step, I would have saved a lot of hassle and some worry.
Anyway, I then had this pencil mark on the wall. I used a Staedtler white plastic eraser to remove it. It didn't come off easily at all. As I was furiously erasing, I held a vacuum cleaner hose right underneath to pick up the eraser dust. I got off most of the line (you can still see a trace) from the TV on upwards. I didn't bother with the part of the cable below the TV, where the pencil line was less visible.
Well unfortunately the vacuum cleaner did NOT pick up all the eraser dust. Lots of eraser dust actually stuck to the sticky side of the speaker cable. I pulled some of that (about 4%) off using some shipping tape.
Then, the horror, I noticed eraser dust all over the top of the TV. I thoroughly cleaned off the TV with the vacuum cleaner, removing the TV from the wall temporarily to do so. I also cleaned off the HDMI extender hanging below the TV, which also got considerable eraser dust. Then I cleaned the cords underneath the TV and even the 3 plug splitter plugged into the wall.
All done? I still worry, because eraser dust also get into the little ventilation openings at the top of the TV and at the top of the HDMI extender. That eraser dust consists of PVC and other chemicals. As it oxidizes, some of those chemicals may be released. Heat inside the TV may accelerate this oxidizing process, particularly around hot running components inside the TV. I did do my best vacuuming through the ventilation holes, cupping with my fingers to focus the vacuum force, but there is still no doubt some eraser dust still in there.
This is probably something nobody else would worry about. And it also worried me that PVC is made using Vinyl Chloride, one of the most toxic substances known. When vinyl (the plastic eraser is made of vinyl) oxidizes, does it release Vinyl Chloride?
I did some quick research which was somewhat reassuring. Firstly, Vinyl doesn't burn until about 400 degrees C, which is something like 800 degrees F, far hotter than burning wood or paper. In other words, vinyl doesn't burn easily. So I wouldn't expect it to oxidize much even if some dust lands on hot resistors inside the TV. (It wouldn't be surprising if most of the wire inside the TV is made of vinyl already touching those same hot parts.) Secondly it doesn't apparently produce much Vinyl Chloride even if it does burn. What Vinyl does produce when it burns is dioxides, which are also very toxic (if not as singularly so as Vinyl Chloride). But you are not going to get much of that simply from vinyl being warm inside a TV. It's going to have to actually burn. One probably gets much more exposure to these chemicals elsewhere.
Anyway, I expect in 10 years when the TV is replaced the eraser dust inside is likely to be pretty much the same as it is now, without having released measurable toxic gas. So it's probably not worth worrying about, though I do plan to take the back off the TV and see if I can clean it more.
Here is the MSDS for the Staedler Eraser. It generally makes it sound pretty safe. The only chemical listed is kaolin which is a kind of clay used in medicinal products. That's 37% and the rest is vinyl (which is not listed--deemed "safe"). No toxic chemicals (and there shouldn't be, as if you are an artist you will be inhaling lots of eraser dust). Fire decomposition products are listed as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and hydrochloric acid. Those aren't great, but we are already exposed to them a lot. I'm thinking you'd probably get more exposure to hazardous chemicals in one drive to the laundrymat than 10 years of watching this TV with minuscule bits of eraser dust inside. Dioxin and vinyl choride aren't listed as decomposition products.
It turned out that this process made no difference to the length of the cable. Once the cable had been re-attached to the wall, it came to exactly the same height as before, and I ultimately screwed the top terminal block into exactly the same hole I had drilled before.
If I had known it was going to work out like this, I could have skipped this entire procedure and gone on to step 2: rubbing caulk behind the cable. And if I had skipped this step, I would have saved a lot of hassle and some worry.
Anyway, I then had this pencil mark on the wall. I used a Staedtler white plastic eraser to remove it. It didn't come off easily at all. As I was furiously erasing, I held a vacuum cleaner hose right underneath to pick up the eraser dust. I got off most of the line (you can still see a trace) from the TV on upwards. I didn't bother with the part of the cable below the TV, where the pencil line was less visible.
Well unfortunately the vacuum cleaner did NOT pick up all the eraser dust. Lots of eraser dust actually stuck to the sticky side of the speaker cable. I pulled some of that (about 4%) off using some shipping tape.
Then, the horror, I noticed eraser dust all over the top of the TV. I thoroughly cleaned off the TV with the vacuum cleaner, removing the TV from the wall temporarily to do so. I also cleaned off the HDMI extender hanging below the TV, which also got considerable eraser dust. Then I cleaned the cords underneath the TV and even the 3 plug splitter plugged into the wall.
All done? I still worry, because eraser dust also get into the little ventilation openings at the top of the TV and at the top of the HDMI extender. That eraser dust consists of PVC and other chemicals. As it oxidizes, some of those chemicals may be released. Heat inside the TV may accelerate this oxidizing process, particularly around hot running components inside the TV. I did do my best vacuuming through the ventilation holes, cupping with my fingers to focus the vacuum force, but there is still no doubt some eraser dust still in there.
This is probably something nobody else would worry about. And it also worried me that PVC is made using Vinyl Chloride, one of the most toxic substances known. When vinyl (the plastic eraser is made of vinyl) oxidizes, does it release Vinyl Chloride?
I did some quick research which was somewhat reassuring. Firstly, Vinyl doesn't burn until about 400 degrees C, which is something like 800 degrees F, far hotter than burning wood or paper. In other words, vinyl doesn't burn easily. So I wouldn't expect it to oxidize much even if some dust lands on hot resistors inside the TV. (It wouldn't be surprising if most of the wire inside the TV is made of vinyl already touching those same hot parts.) Secondly it doesn't apparently produce much Vinyl Chloride even if it does burn. What Vinyl does produce when it burns is dioxides, which are also very toxic (if not as singularly so as Vinyl Chloride). But you are not going to get much of that simply from vinyl being warm inside a TV. It's going to have to actually burn. One probably gets much more exposure to these chemicals elsewhere.
Anyway, I expect in 10 years when the TV is replaced the eraser dust inside is likely to be pretty much the same as it is now, without having released measurable toxic gas. So it's probably not worth worrying about, though I do plan to take the back off the TV and see if I can clean it more.
Here is the MSDS for the Staedler Eraser. It generally makes it sound pretty safe. The only chemical listed is kaolin which is a kind of clay used in medicinal products. That's 37% and the rest is vinyl (which is not listed--deemed "safe"). No toxic chemicals (and there shouldn't be, as if you are an artist you will be inhaling lots of eraser dust). Fire decomposition products are listed as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and hydrochloric acid. Those aren't great, but we are already exposed to them a lot. I'm thinking you'd probably get more exposure to hazardous chemicals in one drive to the laundrymat than 10 years of watching this TV with minuscule bits of eraser dust inside. Dioxin and vinyl choride aren't listed as decomposition products.
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