Ha! “I’ll make sure to give it a clean before I box it up”
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Thanks, I was not aware of that. Here’s a similar answer on stack exchange that mentions includes ethanol (the alcohol used in the alcohol pads mentioned above).
Yep, this mostly sums it up:
" neither alcohol nor plastic refer to specific compounds, but are rather generic terms encompassing hundreds of compounds each. The number of possible combinations is endless."
That person had it dead to rights.
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Ok, but if you’re synth is REALLY dirty…
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I was referring to the part after that, I should have quoted that:
However, assuming that by alcohol you either mean ethanol, which is the drinking kind of alcohol, or isopropanol, which is the alcohol in many cleaning products, then I can give you some advice based on common plastic types. Both are similar enough in their solvent properties that we can generalize.
And for whoever might be interested in the rest of the answer which goes into detail about different kinds of plastic:
Alcohol will damage some plastics, but not all. I will list my answers by the resin code, or “recycling symbol”, found on most plastic items:
- Poly(ethylene terephthalate), PET or PETE - PET is not very soluble in ethanol or isopropanol, but prolonged exposure may cause crazing or stiffening due to the dissolution of plasticizers.
- High-Density polyethylene, HDPE - HDPE is resistant to most things.
- Poly(vinyl chloride), PVC - PVC is not very soluble in ethanol or isopropanol, but prolonged exposure may cause crazing or stiffening.
- Low-Density polyethylene, LDPE - LDPE is resistant to most things.
- Polypropylene, PP - PP is resistant to most things.
- Polystyrene PS - PS is not very soluble in ethanol or isopropanol, but prolonged exposure may cause crazing or stiffening.
- This stands for “other”, but the most common is polycarbonate, which is not very soluble in ethanol or isopropanol, but prolonged exposure may cause crazing or stiffening.
Rubber - most rubbers are probably resistant to alcohols, but prolonged exposure will cause loss of elasticity
General dust removal:
- cheap chip-brush from the hardware store (stiff bristles)
- cheap ultra-soft paint brush from the Japanese dollar store
- inexpensive “HEPA” air cleaners from Amazon (unclear if they are truly HEPA, but seem good enough) for general dust removal
- Oreck XL + HEPA bag kit. Cleans as well as my old Dyson, but it is MUCH easier to clean hair and string out of the Oreck. The Oreck is about 1/3 the cost of a new Dyson and is built like a tank with zero unnecessary parts.
- B&D 20v hand vac for corners and desks
When I run the humidifier, I often get a very fine white powder accumulating on shiny plastic parts. For that, I use the same handkerchiefs I use for cleaning glasses.
I’ve used alcohol (specifically, >90% Isopropyl) to clean flux off of PCBs and also to clean an extremely sticky/grimy Z1 (Korg, not BMW). I try to keep the beer, wine, and whisky in their respective bottles and glasses and also my belly.
Some more cleaning threads:
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Be careful with rubbing alcohol (although generally safe around electronics), I wiped some of the labeling right off my M:S with it!
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One thing I use when there is any kind of difficult grime is those magic cleaning pads. They work with water and you can be surgical with them. You don’t need much water at all, and if you sub in some iso for the water it will dry more or less instantly.
Or, you know, just wash your hands from time to time? 
this is known to work particularly well with vintage roland gear,
a trick of the pro’s, such as it were. In fact I’d be surprised to learn there was a synth restoration outfit that wasn’t using powerwashers these days, just look at the results 
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This post needs a trigger warning. 
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A Swiffer duster will do for most dusty areas. If it needed to be more thorough, I would try a dry or slightly humid microfibre tissue first. This should remove finger prints, too.
Persistent fat traces can be removed with a tiny bit of fat (e.g baby tissues, or microfibre tissue with a tiny bit of mild cream à la Nivea), however, be careful with this trick because I think this might leave traces on rubbery or matte plastic surfaces.
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That’s ShamWow levels of clean
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Now let me tell you a little about media blasting and how it can benefit your business…
I was going to say I’d avoid using it personally unless you need to remove serious gunk - I used acetone to clean up my Prophet knobs as they were sticky and smelled like smoke (I bought it used) - I left them overnight in a bowl of nail polish remover and they came out great, have stayed that way too! But I wouldn’t use anything that aggressive on plastic especially, same with WD-40 tbh (which is a water dispersant) - now if you want to get your plastics nice and greasy you want a silicone based lubricant. I’m not sure why you’d want to do that but I’m not here to judge.
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Food grade mineral oil and hundreds of wooden cotton swabs. One side of the swab is kept dry, getting rid of excess oil if any 
Careful with these. They often tend to shed bristles.
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Big +1. If you haven’t tried one of these (regardless of the brand), try them out. Advertised as “dust magnets” but this is really what they do (and brushes don’t).
If you use edible vinegar, it is best to go for non-sugary and to heavily dilute it with water. Vinegar alone seems pretty aggressive on rubber and matte plastic, especially if you want to keep it esthetic.
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Plus it would have the bonus of making it smell like chips
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