Re: gEDA-user: Isopropyl alcohol vs. ethanol

[Gene Heskett <gene.heskett@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Monday 24 April 2006 10:31, Marshall Jose wrote:
>Marvin Dickens wrote:
>> Regarding water soluable solders, take a look at:
>>
>> http://www.tselectronic.com/solder/solder.html?tse_Session=87ad1697d
>>9d7666613a61c09428f3791
>>
>> Water soluable solder paste is also readily available. In fact,
>> water soluable solder products are available in
>> any form factor you can think of.
>
While I'm not familiar with these new solders, I can address the alcohol 
issue with some lengthy experience on the repair bench.  Use the 
alcohol sold as paint thinner at the hardware store.  About $9 a 
gallon, smaller cans of course are higher per ounce.  Its cheap, and 
pulls solder rosins and such right off without seeming to effect the 
solder masking and other silk screening on the board unless you soak it 
for a long long time.  I've used it with a 1/2" wide paint brush 
applicator for cleanup after repairs for the last 40 some years.  If 
you never put the brush in the can, but just pour out what you need so 
the can never gets contaminated, I believe you can achieve whats called 
lox-clean status in pretty short order.

>I'm a huge fan of water-soluble flux, and prefer it when doing SMT
>stuff. Of course, it's a little less reactive than rosin, so you need
> to really inspect your joints after soldering.

What little experience I have with that has been disapointing.

>My only complaint, and it's a small one, is that you really do have to
>clean it off. The flux is naturally hygroscopic and will, over time,
>increase its conductivity to the point of affecting the surrounding
>circuit. This is only a problem if you use the water-soluble flux on
>everything including prototype boards you might normally leave
>uncleaned. Fortunately, cleaning the flux off the board is such a
>trivial matter there's no real excuse for leaving the flux on.

You'd be amazed at the number of service 'techs' that do.  But what do I 
know, I'm just a C.E.T.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
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