[QuadList] How to make your own Super Cleaner

[C. Park Seward]

I love MEKs ability to dissolve flux. Unfortunately it also dissolves
numerous adhesives and plastics. Fortunately, it is pretty volatile, so
a small bit does not linger. Unfortunately, its pretty volatile, so it
can evaporate rapidly, still leaving the "gunk" on the board. So, here
is a list of  ingredients that I have found to have desirable
characteristics for cleaning circuit boards:

methylethylketone (MEK)
tricloroethylene (TCE)
hexane
ethanol (Everclear)
isopropyl alcohol
methylene chloride

I've tried various blends of the above. Mixes that have worked well have
about 25% isopropyl alcohol, which is basically there to "float" the
stuff that is dissolved by other agents before they evaporate, 25%
ethanol, 20% hexane, and some combination of 10% TCE, 10% methylene
cloride and/or 10% MEK. This is NOT a scientifically derived blend. The
more active solvents, which are those with smaller percentages are
arbitrarily increased or left out, depending on what's handy at the
time. It's VERY unstable and flammable. Some combinations are not a good
idea as the PH of the respective chemicals may be incompatible (poof!).
Some of those chemicals ARE carcinogenic. You DON'T breathe or drink the
stuff. It will eat some plastics, your experience may vary ;-). I have
(expensive) spray cans of electronics cleaners that are not flammable
and are specified to be "safe for plastics" for use on sensitive
surfaces (plastic front panels, inside pots and switches, etc.). It's
best to test ALL cleaning chemicals with the stuff being cleaned on a
location that is not critical prior to slobbering cleaner all over!

The point is that a good cleaner will have just a bit of really
agressive/volatile nasty stuff that dissolves the sticky gunk, mixed
with one or more less volatile solvent(s)/cleaners that persists long
enough to be sopped up, along with the "floated" goo. I think the Ampex
Head Cleaner recipe qualifies for this.

Recently acquired knowledge:
PhotoFlow is touted as a surfactant and is composed of water, propylene
glycol and p-tert-octylphenoxy polyethoxyethyl alcohol. The water is
actually the wash, as the other ingredients reduce its surface tension
(what a sufactant does), enabling it to penetrate goo better. Some types
of crud are more responsive to this than more volatile solvents (Water
IS a solvent!).

I think I'll try Xylene and Photo-Flow out as ingredients in my cleaner
soup.

Toluene/Toluol (methylbenzine) is the solvent found in "model airplane
dope". Unless you want to go someplace other than where you are, without
moving, and aren't concerned with the number of brain cells you have,
don't sniff it! I have it, but rarely even open the can.

Thomas Garson
Aural Technology, Ashland, Or.

Best,
Park

C. Park Seward
Visit us: http://www.videopark.com