Re: Cleaning Solutions for PC Boards Advice

["Tom Zuchowski" <tzuchow@attglobal.net>]

I repair industrial electronics for a living, and our cleaning room cleans
all printed circuit boards with a harsh industrial detergent and a soft
brush, followed by a thorough rinse using copious running water. Then the
boards are blown dry with an air gun and they are put in a warm drying
cabinet for anywhere from an hour to 24 hours, depending on the components.
Some boards we will run through an industrial washing machine (looks sorta
like a dishwasher.) We have an ultrasonic cleaner for problems, too.

If your boards are pretty nasty, I'd wash them in water with a mild dish
soap and a soft brush. Rinse thoroughly under running water, stack the board
on end for an hour or so to drain, then put it in a 110-degree oven for a
couple of hours. You can skip the oven step if you let it air-dry for a
couple of days. BE SURE you note all labels, as most of them will probably
come off since the adhesive is old. If any windowed eproms become uncovered,
cover them back up ASAP.

You will likely see several very vigorous replies to this post, telling you
that this method will ruin the board. Maybe, but we do about 50,000 boards a
year that way and somehow they still work, and they do NOT become corroded,
either.

One caveat: be absolutely scrupulous about following anti-static rules. One
thing you can do to help is to pull all the big chips and RAM (whatever is
socketed) in a static-safe environment and don't wash them, just wipe them
off.

HOWEVER: if your boards aren't pretty nasty, I wouldn't mess with them. I'd
blow them off in the case with a vacuum cleaner and leave them alone. The
more you mess with a board the greater the chance you'll blow it up. You
always play the odds.

I have never seen water-soluble flux, and we do equipment that was made all
over the world. We use a pretty strong flux remover that is petroleum-based,
and I've seen old flux residue that nothing will cut, it has to be scraped
off.

Good luck

Tom Zuchowski


"Bryan Villados" <news002@macgeek.org> wrote in message
news:3c6f573c$1_5@news.onlynews.com...
> Hi! Seems there are several very knowledgable electronic hacks on this
> newsgroup, so I'd like to pick your brains a bit...
>
> I was reading a guy's technique for cleaning printed circuit boards of old
> Apple II hardware. What he does is he takes the boards out of its cases,
> soaks the boards into a solution of de-ionized water and alcohol, then
blows
> them dry with an air gun. Is this good advice? If so, what's the formula
for
> this (X parts de-ionized water to X parts of alcohol)? And how long do you
> leave the board sitting?
>
> What I'd like to do is take used Apple IIe logic boards and give them a
> thorough cleaning of all the grime. Do I dip the entire board, chips and
> all? Or are there some components I must pull off?
>
> Lastly, are there any other good newsgoups oriented to electronics and
> digitial circuits? Enough to start creating some hardware experiments, and
> eventually leading to making Apple II peripeherals.
>
> Thanks!
>
> --- Bryan
>
>