Updated For those of us who worked in darkrooms, dust has always been an annoying problem.  Cotton balls would leave fibers behind and create more problems for you.I used two methods.  A lot of dust can be removed by a puff of air.  No environment is entirely dust free.  You can do a few things to improve the conditions.1. If the air is excessively dry add some humidity.  This will reduce the dust in the air.2. Take care to avoid blowing dust from one negative to another.  Store cleaned negatives properly in a box if mounted or in a sleeve if in a film strip./c/pr...) before drying to avoid water spots.  If your water is very hard you can use distilled water for a final rinse.If it is just dust then it is likely you will not need to do this.If there are scratches on the film you can oil mount (if your scanner allows).  This fills the scratch and generally improves the scan.  An old school method that I haven't used but some swear by is to wet-mount using lighter fluid.Written Michael T. Lauer is absolutely correct.

However there is one more method known to those of us who spent time in dirty, sub-optimal darkrooms. holmes hepa type air purifier smallPhoto Flo is a surfactant liquid which will remove spots, finger prints and dust. air purifiers seen on tvI had the pleasure of taking two darkroom classes in the same semester, back when we used darkrooms. air conditioner cleaning kit indiaThe Fine Arts class had a spotless darkroom where dust feared to tread. The other class was taught by a semi-retired football coach, supposedly in the education department. Coach had a former veteran housing classroom. The class was favored by athletes because anyone who showed up got a good grade. There was a subculture of students who understood that Coach had worked miracles in darkrooms, pushing film to its limits in dirty darkrooms and delivering footage no one else could get.

In that class, film was rinsed, bathed in Photo Flo and squeegeed dry before the dust could settle. It was the antithesis of the careful fine art darkroom... and it was magical. I didn't leave that class careless, I left empowered. We bulk loaded film. We shot rolls of film up and down several stops. We mounted slides and tore them apart. We got things dirty and knew we could fix them. If the technology is antiquated, the critical thinking and understanding of image making still serves me today.Written You can also wipe the negative/ slide with an Ilford Antistaticum cloth (been around for 4 decades) to remove dust and help keep it off while you work. Fold the cloth over and draw the neg through it so you get both sides at the same time. Keep the scanner glass clean as well.This will get debris not removed by blowing (don’t blow with your mouth) with a bulb /ear type syringe. Desirable to try first because the risk of scratching is nil if you don’t touch it. A fine (paint-type) brush used lightly might help too.

If the slides are particularly dirty you might need to remove them from their mount (might be easy, might be hard) to get clean to the edges, when you can’t crop.Inspect both surfaces with a bright light or flashlight held close and to the side with a dark background to make sure you got it clean.Be aware that most “dust” is very abrasive and can cause scratches if you apply too much pressure when cleaning it off the soft emulsion surface.An old darkroom trick that I have used often in the past to deal with small scratches is to smear a bit of oil from the side of your nose (it’s called squalene) into it. Scratch invisible, just like that.Written A large ear syringe provides a pollution free blast of air. There are anti-static brushes that help. You might consider getting a portable air cleaner if you have lots of slides and negatives to clean before scanning or printing. Consider wearing gloves to avoid adding accidental dust or dirt to the images. You might need to remove cardboard mounts and remount in plastic ones.

I have been able to find this but they don't come with the fitting/handle that allows you to blow air - for instance, if you want to blow dust from your keyboard, etc. Does anyone know if this kit will fit any of those pumps? Or if not, what other small, portable, air compressors are there that can do what I want (also, I DO want to inflate tires - just not ONLY). cleaning product-recommendation compressor blower This question exists because it has historical significance, but it is not considered a good, on-topic question for this site, so please do not use it as evidence that you can ask similar questions here. This question and its answers are frozen and cannot be changed. More info: help center. Here is a suggestion that may make some sense on several levels. Buy an air tank. I have a moderately big one, that holds 10 gallons of air. Of course, it is heavy to carry around, being steel. But when I need to pump up a tire beyond the range of the several hundred feet of hose I have, or for whatever use I need, I just disconnect it from my compressor lines where I have it coupled with a quick disconnect.

In your case, my suggestion is to pump it up with a foot pump. Ok, yes, this will take some work, but once pumped up, it will keep that air under pressure until you want it. And since you are looking for a "green" solution, this is as green as you can imagine, using foot power. Or, I suppose you could always just go to the local service station and pump it up to 100 PSI or so. Once the valve is shut, it will maintain that pressure for a long time. Fix up a short length of air hose so you can use it to blow air. One of those plastic spiral air hoses might be perfect, allowing you about 20 feet of walking distance. An even cheaper solution is to just buy a truck tire inner tube. Pep Boys sells them for about $15. Go to the gas station to pump it up, and then you can carry it anywhere you want, for a ready source of compressed air that weighs very little to carry around. Again, you will need to figure out how to put a line on the tire valve, but this is not hard to do. Go to your local hardware store and they should be able to get you set up.

(I did not say to go to Lowes or Home Depot, but to go to a store where they actually understand hardware.) Then here is what I'd do. The first part will be to put a hose onto an inner tube. I don't know what thread an inner tube valve is, so I would go to my local hardware store and get them to help me find a nipple with the proper thread. They tend to stock entire shelves of them, so this is not a real problem. Once you have that, you need to be able to couple it to a 1/4 inch NPT (National Pipe Thread.) This is a standard thread for air hoses and the like. When you add the coupling to the tire valve, you will need to remove the needle valve inside. This will allow air to go freely in and out of the tire tube. Next, add an Air line ball valve. This will let you shut off the air positively, because you want it to stay pumped up. Notice that the threads on the ball vavle are 1/4 inch NPT, exactly what you need. Next, I went to Amazon and typed in "coiled air hose" into the search field.

Typically, these run from $10 - $30, depending on the length of the hose. I find they work nicely, giving me an extensible hose. You don't need a long one though. Finally, I looked online for a quick connect coupler. Central Pneumatic or Campbell Hausfeld are common names here. The quick connect coupler will allow you to easily attach a handheld air blow gun as you show. Note that it will have a 1/4 inch NPT thread! You can also attach a regular tire valve, to use that to blow up your reserve of compressed air, using either foot pump or a gas station pump. All of these items are common things you will find in any local hardware store, or even most auto parts stores. Of course, the amount of air you can put into such a tube is somewhat limited, but it will easily be sufficient to keep a keyboard clean. You can put far more into a steel air tank, because you can store higher pressures there. Are you looking for something smaller than this? Porter Cable Pancake Air Compressor

To get any kind of are pressure / volume, you need a compressor of a decent size. Those little mini compressors can inflate something, but it takes a long time and they don't have the volume of air necessary to blow dust. I would suggest using a small shopvac instead of an air compressor, for several reasons. Air from compressors contains moisture which can harm electronics. If you want anything more than a few seconds of air, you'll need a compressor with a high CFM output or a large tank. This means more money than you're willing to spend. I've got this 1 gal. compressor, and it's awesome for trim work and filling up tires, but nearly worthless for blowing off work surfaces. Not only would you need to buy a compressor, but you'd also need to buy a hose and all the accessories, which means even more money. It's true, you can't use a shopvac for filling up tires, but you can use it for plenty of other things around the house anyway. You are going to need something with a storage tank.

The little "inflater" type compressors basically use the tire, ball, etc. as the storage tank. Because of this, they are not going to be able to blow air with any force. If you're just looking to blow dust from your keyboard, why not use compressed gas in a can? don't try to fill your tires with this. If you are dead set on using a compressor for this, you're going to want to look for a small 1 - 3 gallon compressor. Though, you may find even the smallest compressor is overkill (unless the keyboard is really dusty). You should be able to find a 1 gallon compressor online for ~$100.00, just make sure you get one that is oil-free if you are going to be using it on keyboards and whatnot. if you want to blow air you need a tank, you could DIY something with soda bottles or balloons (beware of over inflating) however cheap hand operated keyboard blowers exist (google link no affiliation) and a bicycle pump can inflate car tires (if the valve fits on mountain bikes it'll fit on cars) remember that cars need a much lower pressure (~30 psi) compared to bikes (50-75 psi)