I've used vodka in the past to remove a musty smell and believe it will remove a smoke smell as well.

I put the lower shelf stuff in a spray bottle and sprayed the inside and outside of the entire machine (around the boards) several times a day for a few days...smell was gone.

See this webpage for that and other ideas.

http://refinishingfurniture.net/how-to-remove-smoke-smell-from-furniture/

Robert

Most boards and harnesses can be run through the dishwasher and then blown dry.

An ozone generator can be placed inside the machine for a couple of days and then the smell will be gone.

Sometimes common household spray cleaners like Mean Green will clean of the outside of the cabinet. Stubborn smoke/soot can be removed with 99% isopropyl alcohol, but use caution with it on decals.

Years ago i worked for a fire restoration company.
Smoke damage can be nasty. The odor can be
difficult to remove. It can be done though.
It depends on the amount of smoke damage, are the machines
covered in black soot?
In general,
Before using any liquid cleaners i would
vacuum everything with a brush attachment.
I would focus on any porous surface the most like
the inside of cabinet. Using liquid cleaner will set the
soot in the porous wood forever, so vacuum first.
If the inside parts are covered in black soot each will
need to be cleaned individually.
Basically this will be the shop job from hell.
They make sealers that seal the odor in a wood surface.
Obviously you would have to empty the cabinet completely.
We also would set items in a makeshift tent and run a ozone
machine to neutralize the odor at the molecular level.
Good luck.
Sorry if this is tough to read, typed on phone

Instead of a dishwasher, I would advise using scrubbing bubbles and a toothbrush. Then rinse under water. Take it from me. bringing a game back from a fire is not fun. Heres Just a few pics of mine

IMG_0334.jpg

IMG_0340.jpg

IMG_0341.jpg

IMG_0357.jpg

IMG_0358.jpg

IMG_0477.jpg

Heres some afters as well.

There is a spray you can use that will get the soot and smell off. I will look for it when i go home and update you.

photo 1.JPG

photo 2.JPG

photo 3.JPG

photo 4.JPG

Are you sure Dow Scrubbing Bubbles are safe for circuit boards?

Yes. It is safe. I can guarantee its much safer than putting this boards in a dishwasher. Especially with the fact that he has to have some kind of soot (Which is corrosive) on that board. Not to mention i can put my bottom dollar on it that if you dish wash those boards, it will not take off the soot. It will look like it may, but if you run your finger across them, they WILL be black. Again these are only suggestions and I am providing this info as it has worked for me.

I've dishwashed many boards spotlessly clean from sys3-11 games that have ignited. No soot left at all.

I've never tried the scrubbing bubbles. What do you rinse it off with?

Just rinse with Luke warm water.

Cool, I try it and report back!

I've been using scrubbing bubbles to clean PCBs for more than 5 years and have had no ill side effects from doing so.

Having said that, I've also tried to clean some smoke damaged PCBs, and it seems like the soot etches them - usually won't come off, regardless of what you use!

I know the liquid commercial dishwashing detergent has super fine sand in it (no joke, wash it through a coffee filter to see what I mean), so I always figure it's both chemically AND physically cleaning the soot.

I'm going to try the Dow stuff and see how she goes.

The longer the soot is allowed to stay on the boards before you start cleaning them, the harder it is to clean them. So as soon as you can get the soot/smoke damaged boards get busy on cleaning them.

I've also had good luck using rosin flux cleaner/remover chemical sprays to clean the boards.

My father owns a fire restoration company. I worked for him for many years. We used Ozone generators to remove smoke smell from all sorts of things. This definitely works. You'll have to do a lot of general cleaning to remove the soot and stuff first. Compressed air, simple green, etc. Lots of good advice on this thread.

Spot on advice.

The ozone gens will work great but they can affect the plastic parts, ramps PF plastics etc, with extended use ..

It is covered in other threads about removing musty smells from pins etc...

keep that in mind..

Good to know. How does it affect the plastics? Does it warp them or make them brittle or something?

Sorry this happened to your buddy Chris!

I had my first house burn mostly down and it was not a pleasent experience. Luckily nobody was hurt. I had resotred the entire house and moved away and was renting it to some stoner college kids. The one girl assuradly got baked on the backporch and left a lit cig in an overflowing ashtray. She went in the house to take a nap and woke up to the entire back side of the house in flames. She got out with the dog and called me before even calling the fire dept. Even stoners are supposed to know you call the fire dept first and then the landlord.

Everything in the house was trashed. I had a bunch of stuff in my storage spot in the basement and it took forever to get smoke damage out.

Lots of good advice here. I know the ozone generators work great. I can not even imagine the amount of work that would go in to cleaning an entire pinball collection with extensive smoke damage, but I would think in this case he would be better off pushing for them to be considered a total loss anf then take the insurance $$ and go buy new replacements.

side note > if the insurance company lets you keep the damaged machines, I am interested

Side story...
After the tenants moved out as the house was condemmed, they left a tons of stuff behind that they did not want to deal with (they had insurance and we pretty loaded). I went through with some buddies to find anything salavageable (stuff in rubbermaids and well packaged) to donate to goodwill. There is no power ot the house and it is getting dark. My one buddy upstrairs is laughing hysterically and comes to the top of the stairs. Yells to my buddy #2 in the basement, "Hey, check this out" and tosses something.
Since it is dark in the basement but lighter at the top of the stairs, buddy #2 can not see what is coming at him but instinctively catches what is coming towards his face. It takes about 3 seconds before he realizes it is a large flopping/vibrating orange dong. I guess the tenant forgot to remove her box of fun toys. Needless to say we did not donate those to goodwill...

Chris, please let us know how this turns out. I'd love to find out how an insurance company handles something like this.

I can let you know that with my house fire I spent LOTS of time proving value on stuff (mainly a custom built in entertainment center plus a handful of old tools and fishing gear that I had in storage in the basement) and I had to stick to my guns and not back down.

They tried to screw me with low ball offers on the house value and everything else. I was fortunate that I had a clause for loss of income in my policy and since it was a rental property at the time and I was 100% legit I was covered. That meant for every month the insurance company stalled (normal tactic to get people who are physically living in a hotel to cave with a lower offer) they paid me rent money on an empty house. It took 6 months and finally a good local lawyer on retainer to finally get them to pay FMV on everything. I was sick of talking to the adjuster so I got the lawyer and told him, "please filter all calls to my lawyers office". No joke, 3 days later I had a final sign off letter for my full amount in the mail along with the final payoff check 3 days after that.

They still tried to screw me as they thought I was not going to be able to sell the property as-is and they knew it woudl cost 30k to clean it all up, plus city fines for the property sitting vacant for 6 months. Luckily I already had it presold for another 25k for a firer chaser.

In the end, it worked out for me because I treated it like business, but I can not imagine going through the added BS if I had actually been living there and housed up in a hotel waiting for things to resolve for 6 months.

The insurance company dropped me 60 days later, LOL.