![]() 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. This versatile flux offers the benefits of a rosin flux, with the unique advantage of being water-soluble.Īdditional Rosin Fluxes available, including Solderability Testing Flux to meet the specifications of J-STD-004 testing for rosin fluxes.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. 8600 Type RMA is a revolutionary rosin paste flux whose residues are completely water-soluble. 9000 meets all the requirements of Mil-F-14256C, Type RMA. It has excellent wetting ability and a stable viscosity, and is both halide-free and halogen-free. 9000 Type RMA rosin paste flux was formulated for industrial operating environments. 100HT Type RA liquid rosin flux is formulated using a special combination of activator and solvents to work in high temperature solder applications. 100 Type RA liquid rosin flux is an ideal activated rosin flux for soldering PCBs, wire, cable, and semiconductors. 99 can be used for automated and manual soldering applications, and meets all the requirements of Mil-F-14256C, Type RMA. 99 Type RMA liquid rosin flux is ideal for general purpose soldering of PCBs, wire, cable and semiconductors and hand-soldering applications. 97 can be used for automated and manual soldering applications and meets all the requirements of Mil-F-14256C, Type R. 97 is completely free of any activators and leaves a non-corrosive, non-conductive, fungus-proof post-solder residue. 97 Type R liquid rosin flux is ideal for general purpose soldering of PCBs, wire, cable and semiconductors, and hand-soldering applications.
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