Cleaning boards

Aslo not a good choice. It has a bunch of natural emulsifiers in it. One is a lemon oil based job.

It is kind of like silicone oils... You do not want them anywhere near your electronic circuit assemblies, or if you do use it, you still need to do an alcohol 'rinse' to get back to a truly clean board.

I have had a LOT of experience with this as a 50kV power supply HAS to have the multip[lier section in as clean an environ as can be achieved. Even so much as 'coffee breath' on an HV multiplier cap or the board, and the encapsulation fails, and the supply fails.

I KNOW how to clean electronic assemblies.

Acetone, lacquer thinner and other volatile compounds and solvent are NOT EVER recommended. Alcohol is about the strongest "solvent" one would ever want to use, because it "solves" flux, but does NOT solve plastics, inks, silk screens, etc., etc., etc.

Water works fine, even on the 50kV supply if one knows what the ENTIRE process is, which INCLUDES a vacuum chamber session and or a bake oven session.

It really is *that* simple.

Even THAT will NOT 'pull' all of the water out of ANY PCB assembly. PCB media is VERY hygroscopic. So, even regardless of the alcohol finish rinse, one STILL needs to bake the damned thing out or subject it to a vacuum for a period of about five minutes. AND no, it does not matter that it has a solder mask on it. THAT, in fact, can trap water in the fiberglass layers of the PCB media.

Our HV supplies had NO mask in the multiplier section, where the potting needed to obtain decent 'adhesion'.

Some of this basic stuff is laid out in IPC-610.

Apparently Goo Gone is largely napta and citrus oil:

Thanks for the response...

Sure does work well for removing price stickers. ...Jim Thompson

If you have to ask about a solvent and use of it on a PCB assembly, it is the wrong material.

Then, he puts the lower price sticker on, and then demands that he get the product for the marked price at the register.

I knew that you were a characterless criminal!

More like gohms, but very humidity sensitive. If you trap ionic crud under a part, you can get down into the megohms, and can start electroplating lead and copper and what-all everywhere.

We got one batch of boards from an assembler who washed them badly, probably a combination of dirty wash water and inadequate spraying. They leaked like mad. We bought a WaterPic toothbrush thing and worked them over part-by-part with deionized water, then baked. That fixed them.

If you conformal coat cruddy boards, you're in big trouble. We specify RMA flux and solvent cleaning on sensitive analog stuff.

John

The thing that we all know is that you're AlwaysWrong.

John

Solvents like Acetone suspend them, and then they ALSO leave some behind afterward.

Bad choice... always.

The problem, John, is what "we all" is defined as.

Everyone in the group except you and your 48 nyms.

John

Nymbecile has more than 70 (he lies a lot, though).

That means he can play with himself!

John

Sure, Johnny... you continue thinking that you speak for everyone.

Well, let's be scientific and take a survey:

How many people think A.L. is a competent electronic designer and a good Christian?

How many people think he's a profane jerk and AlwaysWrong?

John

Not a chance.

Perhaps. Lots of 'Christians' are mean vengeful people with no guts to carry out their hate.

Absolutely! Absolutely! Absolutely! Absolutely! ...Jim Thompson

Right, he's still a virgin.

A.L.? Don't you mean A.W.? He's never designed anything in his life. He doesn't even have designs on women.

Three strikes!

Damn! I have to order a new clutch for my reel now!