[chych]

I just went to the basement today and noticed that my mother, for whatever reason she had in mind, bought a bottle of "Flux Remover" spray (like that WD-40 spray can). So it removes flux from electronics... is this a recommended tweak for audio components? I'm not exactly going to spray it all over my electronics if it will destroy them...

Smells an awful lot like ethanol too...

 

[Budgie]

It is good for removing flux from solder joints, but usually that has allready been done before most products leave the manufacturer. I wouldn't use it for a connection cleaner for RCA's etc. It is a fairly aggressive solvent, usually, and may damage some type's of plastic and other materials.

 

[chych]

Hmm I see... At least I should deflux the solder joints or something...

Apparantely in the biochemistry world ethanol/ethyl alcohol can be used to precipitate, which reduces the dielectric... in say, like a solution...

So, since this flux thing smells like ethanol, the active ingredient must be it... so I guess it would be good to use it, or maybe just ethanol, on internal wiring and cables or something, to reduce the dielectrics increasing conductivity. I guess it would be good on everything except, say, capacitors.

 

[Hirsch]

WHAT????? You mean my Sumiko Fluxbuster is really a desoldering tool?????

 

[Budgie]

(How nice that they don't just list the ingredients.) I would deflux your board, but be careful of capacitors. The idea was that it would migrate (capillary flow?) into capacitors and ruin them. Age's ago - when I spent a summer on a board assembly line (living hell), we would bulk deflux the wave soldered boards, solder in the caps,connectors,etc. by hand, then deflux those joints with a swab, and alcohol, by hand.

(Hirsch- You did know the Sumiko went out of production due to sterility problems in frequent users?)