Re: Cleaning old Apple II cards?

[PZ <skierpaul@yahoo.com>]

On Jun 25, 4:40 pm, "atfphotogra...@gmail.com"
<atfphotogra...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jun 25, 6:47 am, "Matt J. McCullar" <mccul...@flash.net> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Arcade game collectors clean motherboards all the time.  I work at a
> > circuit-board repair center and we often get circuit boards that are
> > literally caked with dirt, oil, metal chips, etc.  For many years our
> > cleaning method has been very simple:
>
> > 1) Remove any socketed chips and store them carefully.  (This lets you read
> > and store the software, and also keeps the labels from washing off)
> > 2) Remove any batteries and fuses and flyback transformers (if present)
> > 3) Give the board a bath in the sink with warm water and a common cleaning
> > liquid called Simple Green.  It's a good, general-purpose cleaner.  I've
> > also used Fantastic and Formula 409.  Use a soft paintbrush to scrub in and
> > around all of the components, then rinse off the board.  It will look like
> > new after this.
> > 4) Allow board to dry.  If you've got an air compressor, give it a mild shot
> > of air after one drying cycle to get any residual water out from underneath
> > components.
> > 5) Re-insert what got removed, and you're back in business.
>
> > Simple Green, etc. won't attack any components as acetone will.
>
> Interesting.
>
> So there wasn't any problems with rusting? One of the motherboards I
> recently
> came across has rust in the back and I'm trying to figure a way to
> either replace
> the part completely or somehow get the rust off (it's a composite
> connector and
> the tape input/output ports on a IIe motherboard).
>
> I was just worried about rust on parts of the board. What do you
> consider a
> drying cycle and how long? Just air dry and then hit it with the air
> compressor after
> the first one?
>
> Best!
>
> ATF

The rusting probably occurred from a humid environment with cyclical
temperature swings, which would cause mild condensation on  metal
components, which would certainly cause some components to rust/
corrode.  A one time washing and dry-off won't hurt a thing. The key
is to not allow moisture to remain on the part you're cleaning for a
long period of time.

I've heard good things about Simple Green that Matt mentioned, so I'm
not surprised that it works well. Removing socketed components isn't a
bad idea either, although I would remove them immediately after
washing (unless they had things like labels) just for drying
purposes.

- Paul