Dirty Sem!

Having an electron microscope in the garage is a bit like getting married... it's after the honeymoon that the chaos begins! Mind you, it's not like I didn't expect it! In fact, maybe this is the most entertaining part of the whole SemGarage project: currently, my little monster is nothing more than a dormant metal ton weighing with obvious problems to solve, and who knows how many others I'll discover along the way! Sem needs a cleaning today! Sem stinks! Of smoke, dust, dampness... of who knows what, but it stinks strongly! Let's be honest... it's so filthy that it grosses me out a bit to touch it without a pair of gloves!!!

How do you clean such a cumbersome thing? What refined technique will it take to clean such a delicate instrument? You take it apart piece by piece...

...and you rub, blow, vacuum, spray and rub again and again.

And everyone contributes their part...

We've spent 5 hours and we're still far from the final result, but at least now it doesn't stink anymore!

For all those who think that two children aged 4 and 6 should never come near such a big and mean machine because of unknown dangers:
Sem is our cuddly 1-ton, 30,000-volt toy!
Sure, it's not without risks for the children: maybe they'll learn to love science!
I'm convinced that in my presence, Sem is infinitely less dangerous than my cellphone in my absence!

And if you didn't know, now you know!