Frank's Mighty Mouse Cleaning Tips

There are a variety of pages out there detailing the dissection and cleaning of Apple's wonderful Mighty Mouse. Specifically, the scroll ball has a tendency to get gummed up after a month or three of steady use. Mine got gummed up today, and after trying several things to get it clean, I found that Apple's recommended method works the best. But here's what I learned in case you don't believe me:

1. Don't take it apart. There are two reasons for this advice: first, you'll almost certainly break either the outer or inner gray plastic ring on the bottom. I broke the outer one despite trying to first cut the glue holding it on with a razor blade (OK, the retractable part of the Amazing Open-X). Second, the scroll ball assembly itself is mostly sealed, so you won't be able to get at the rollers to clean them. The best you could hope to do would be to replace the whole scroll ball assembly. Update: It looks like you actually can take the scroll ball assembly apart, just not with the tools I had at my disposal. Maybe good as a last resort.
2. Don't use the Mighty Mouse around iron filings and the like. The scroll ball uses a couple of really tiny exposed donut magnets to sense when the rollers are turning. Little flecks of metal stick to them and won't come off unless you pluck them off with tweezers.
3. Do turn it upside down and rub it on a damp cloth. This is Apple's recommended method and works quite well. The turning-upside-down part seems to be key.

Hopefully that will save you the pain and anguish of destroying your mouse in an attempt to de-crud your scroll ball.