12/12/2023 0 Comments Methylated spirits home depotNS on Update Your Chinese Radio Without The Pain.I Alone Possess The Truth on A Little Bit Of Science History Repeating Itself: Boyle’s List.John on Update Your Chinese Radio Without The Pain.j s on Liquid Metal Battery Goes Into Production.This Week In Security: It’s Con Season 8 Comments I have roughly 2 quarts of IPA remaining in my home-loan, but I’m saving it to make hand sanitizer (3:1 ratio of alcohol to Aloe vera gel). Once the virus crisis passes, IPA will be available again. They worked very well, but are now considered to be either toxic or bad for the environment. I dare you: try to fill a styrofoam cup with acetone, and see what happens! I’ve also worked with 1,1,1-trichloroethane & freon-113 for cleaning flux. We used to use acetone on military & satellite projects, and it works well on almost all fluxes (even acid-core flux), as others have said, acetone can dissolve some silkscreens, the glue used on labels, and some plastics. Prolonged exposure to gasoline-based solvents (even kerosene) can cause the PCB to de-laminate. IPA is probably the best solvent, as it won’t destroy the PCB, won’t cause health issues (unless you stupidly try to drink it), and won’t harm the environment. Our Production department was forbidden to use ultrasonic cleaners after the crystal was installed. Back in the day, I used to work for Spectrum Technology (later sold to Dale), which made both crystal oscillators & TCXOs. They can permanently damage crystals & crystal oscillators. Quality level CAN be very high with this cleaning technique.īe careful when using ultrasonic cleaners (often used to clean jewelery). I’ve been accused of running boards thru a wave soldering machine before yet I do it all by hand. Ethanol can be reused many times for rough cleaning but the final clean should be with fresh stuff so figure two tupperwares one with lots of gross old solvent and one that only touches clean new solvent. My experience is ethanol needs a good soak for about three minutes in a sealed tupperware and then some toothbrush scrubbing and a water rinse, repeat about twice for perfection. Unlike petroleum solvents and greases, ethanol mixes perfectly with water so if I manage to ever set my board and hands on fire, there is a stream of cold water about two inches away. Anyway they’re solvent proof “long enough”.ĭenatured ethanol burns really well so I do this in a metal utility basement sink with the water running. I don’t like the feeling of dried flux on skin and the alcohol is very drying to skin so cheap nitrile gloves work well enough for protection. The pros use weird detergents and hot water in commercial (sometimes residential) dishwashing machines, so I rinse afterwards with steamy hot water which dries very quickly. Some flux especially some of the water based ones are super corrosive worse than acid flux decades ago. Yeah I’ve run into that but it seems to be flux residue. Posted in Misc Hacks Tagged acetone, aerosol, brake cleaner, cleaning, flux, flux removal, pcb, Solvent Post navigation Ultrasonic cleaners do a great job, and as discovered, they’re generally safe for most components. There may be others, but make sure you test whatever you find.Īerosol solvents aren’t the only way to clean a PCB, of course. About the only US-sold brand without acetone that we could find was Keller-Heartt, which lists only naptha and ethanol on its SDS. Alas, almost all of the cheap and readily available aerosols have acetone as the principle ingredient, mixed in with methanol, ethanol, and assorted ingredients that together will probably make for a bad day. In the video below, goes through a few more brands with similar results, and we were encouraged enough by his results to check brake cleaners made for the US market. It did a fine job cleaning all but the crustiest rosin flux without collateral damage. The brand he tried was Normfest Bremsenreiniger MC-1, a German brand that according to its Safety Data Sheet contains only hydrocarbons like alkanes, butane, and propane. He suspected that they might contain acetone, which is prone to yield unfortunate results with solder resist and silkscreen on PCBs, so some tests were in order. ’s search for a cheaper and perhaps more readily available substitute for his usual dedicated flux cleaner lead him to try automotive brake cleaner on a few test boards. But don’t fret: depending on where you live, alternative PCB cleaning solutions may be as close as your nearest auto parts store. If you don’t, you’re probably out of luck, since the COVID-19 pandemic has pretty much cleared IPA out of the retail market. If you’re in the habit of using isopropyl alcohol to clean your PCBs after soldering, you probably have a nice big jug of the stuff stashed away.
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