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Best flux remover yet: brake cleaner

Hi, all,

Just wanted to pass along a new (to me) discovery.

You know how when you try removing rosin flux with "flux remover" or a polar solvent such as methanol or acetone, it leaves all this white crap behind?

Yesterday I was in Advanced Auto Parts to get a can of Berryman B12 to clean out my fuel injectors. Just on spec, I bought a can of Carquest brake cleaner ($8ish for a 19-oz can) to try out on my current protos, which were getting a bit gnarly. (I picked it on the excellent grounds that it was the cheapest.)

Stuff is unbelievable. One good spritz, followed by a bit of canned air, and the board looks like nobody ever monkeyed with it at all. It even left the Sharpie annotations behind.

It does have various chlorinated things in it, but man, does it ever work. (Use it outside if you don't have a fume hood.)

Highly recommended.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Reply to
Phil Hobbs
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mandag den 31. juli 2023 kl. 20.41.53 UTC+2 skrev Phil Hobbs:

not all brake cleaner is chlorinated

Reply to
Lasse Langwadt Christensen

The good stuff is!

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Reply to
Phil Hobbs

have you tried?

Reply to
Lasse Langwadt Christensen

Nah, I still have 0.98 can left!

Reply to
Phil Hobbs

Some cleaners contain even flouric acid...

Reply to
Uwe Bonnes

yeh real nasty stuff and at ~260'C chlorinated brake clean makes phosgene ..

Reply to
Lasse Langwadt Christensen

It should be long gone out your good ventilation before getting anywhere near 260 C, and small amounts of phosgene are not very dangerous anyhow. I once lab tested a phosgene compressor shaft seal, and the tech who went to the plant for installation and field test reported that the place stank of phosgene and it made his cigarettes taste bad. Used in plastics manufacturing, it is shipped in tank trucks placarded "corrosive".

Alternative brake cleaners are flammable. And not tested for flux removal :-).

Reply to
Glen Walpert

Do my brakes need cleaning? I've never done that. How embarassing.

We have a "vapor degreaser" with two tanks, a boiling deflux side and a clean distilled side. When it's shut down and nobody is looking and the spray wand is off, I dunk my boards in the flux side and then the clean side. Don't tell anyone!

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Reply to
John Larkin

mandag den 31. juli 2023 kl. 23.28.07 UTC+2 skrev John Larkin:

it is to remove the protective oil on the new discs when replacing

Reply to
Lasse Langwadt Christensen

I've used it before, but you have to be careful with certain plastics.

Reply to
WangoTango

Reply to
three_jeeps

Seems more useful for drum brake service, I "cleaned" the original pads and rotors on my Volt by replacing them and taking the old ones to the scrap yard after ~7 years. Regeneration means they tend to last a long time but less so in the Northeast than California.

Most of the bolts and pins are torque-to-yield so no point in cleaning those either, they go to the scrapper also. Modern disc brakes are pretty low-maintenance.

New manufacture boards should look new, but the e.g. HP service guides I've read have said that for repairs by techs they should just let the flux lie vs. trying to scrub it off.

Reply to
bitrex

I think the non-chlorinated ones tend to contain acetone

Reply to
bitrex

But that's ugly. I like my protos all shiny.

Reply to
John Larkin

But the crappy allegedly-green stuff is just full of that terrifying chemical dihydrogen monoxide!

Reply to
Phil Hobbs

Another horrible way to die.

The good thing about dying is you only have to do it once.

Reply to
John Larkin

I believe the red cans of crc are still chlorinated.

Cheers

Reply to
Martin Rid

Vapor degreasers are awsome.

Cheers

Reply to
Martin Rid

And get rid of all the dust that gets glued on by various bits of oil and brake fluid that leak out. You really do not want any of that inside your hydraulic system.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Reply to
Phil Hobbs

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