"Gary S." wrote:

On 29 Dec 2003 00:01:11 GMT, (JGBOYLES) wrote:

Most denatured alcohol is denatured with methyl alcohol. The water is
just there to dilute it.

But the denaturing can be done with several substances.

Maybe he should have asked about the best denatured alcohol, so the thread
would evolve into the best desoldering braid :-).
73 Gary N4AST

How many brands of desoldering braid are there, and how distinctive
are they from each other?

Happy trails,
Gary

I have seen at least a half dozen brands. They seem to have different
flux formulations because some work a lot better than others. That is
why I switched to buying bulk ground braid and liquid flux. (Kester 197)


--
Merry Christmas!

Take care, and God bless.
Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

Bill Turner wrote:

On Sun, 28 Dec 2003 17:03:08 GMT, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:

For some things I remove flux with a spray can of carburetor cleaner.
It is a mix of Toluene, Acetone and Methanol.

____________________

That's a nasty combination. Be sure it never gets on any plastics.

--
Bill W6WRT

I use it to clean flux off soldered metal shields, or when I restuff
oil filled bathtub capacitors. I'm aware of the damage to plastics. I
worked in electronics manufacturing myself. In some ways I miss the
circuit board washing machine, and just handing a board to the woman in
the cleaning room for hand cleaning after I had repaired it.
--
Merry Christmas!

Take care, and God bless.
Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

Bill Turner wrote:

On Sun, 28 Dec 2003 17:03:08 GMT, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:

For some things I remove flux with a spray can of carburetor cleaner.
It is a mix of Toluene, Acetone and Methanol.

____________________

That's a nasty combination. Be sure it never gets on any plastics.

--
Bill W6WRT

I use it to clean flux off soldered metal shields, or when I restuff
oil filled bathtub capacitors. I'm aware of the damage to plastics. I
worked in electronics manufacturing myself. In some ways I miss the
circuit board washing machine, and just handing a board to the woman in
the cleaning room for hand cleaning after I had repaired it.
--
Merry Christmas!

Take care, and God bless.
Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

On Sun, 28 Dec 2003 19:54:42 -0800, Bill Turner
wrote:

On Sun, 28 Dec 2003 23:33:02 GMT, Mike Coslo
wrote:

Most denatured alcohol is denatured with methyl alcohol.

Methyl alcohol should be avoided around plastics because it will attack
some of the softer ones. Isopropyl is the safest of all the many
alcohols.

Before I retired I was a manufacturing engineer in the aircraft
electronics industry and ran many tests of this nature. I was never
able to harm any plastic with pure isopropyl, but methyl and ethyl both
caused damage to some materials. Of course, we were able to buy pure
isopropyl in 55 gallon drums. :-)

Yes, I have seen it that way, and we used enough to need the 55 gallon
drums.

Goes to show that reading labels is important for all sorts of things.

At another time, I was at a place which had a process which required
the pure 190 proof ethanol. As this was drinkable, it had an ATF tax
stamp just like you would see on a bottle of liquor.

Since the tax is proportional to the alcohol content, the tax was more
than the alcohol itself.

Happy trails,
Gary (net.yogi.bear)
------------------------------------------------
at the 51st percentile of ursine intelligence

Gary D. Schwartz, Needham, MA, USA
Please reply to: garyDOTschwartzATpoboxDOTcom

On Sun, 28 Dec 2003 19:54:42 -0800, Bill Turner
wrote:

On Sun, 28 Dec 2003 23:33:02 GMT, Mike Coslo
wrote:

Most denatured alcohol is denatured with methyl alcohol.

Methyl alcohol should be avoided around plastics because it will attack
some of the softer ones. Isopropyl is the safest of all the many
alcohols.

Before I retired I was a manufacturing engineer in the aircraft
electronics industry and ran many tests of this nature. I was never
able to harm any plastic with pure isopropyl, but methyl and ethyl both
caused damage to some materials. Of course, we were able to buy pure
isopropyl in 55 gallon drums. :-)

Yes, I have seen it that way, and we used enough to need the 55 gallon
drums.

Goes to show that reading labels is important for all sorts of things.

At another time, I was at a place which had a process which required
the pure 190 proof ethanol. As this was drinkable, it had an ATF tax
stamp just like you would see on a bottle of liquor.

Since the tax is proportional to the alcohol content, the tax was more
than the alcohol itself.

Happy trails,
Gary (net.yogi.bear)
------------------------------------------------
at the 51st percentile of ursine intelligence

Gary D. Schwartz, Needham, MA, USA
Please reply to: garyDOTschwartzATpoboxDOTcom

For some things I remove flux with a spray can of carburetor cleaner.
It is a mix of Toluene, Acetone and Methanol.

____________________

That's a nasty combination. Be sure it never gets on any plastics.
======================
Indeed especially the toluene (a benzol derivative) is particularly nasty .
Do NOT bring in contact with skin or inhale. It can cause cancer.

Many moons ago some benzol (chemical formula C6H6) was added to car petrol
to increase the octane rating , but because of the above problems an
alternative was added to achieve the same. Also certain paints (for example
those for concrete workshop floors ) contained toluene (an excellent
solvent) but these are now banned ,at least in the EU.

Frank GM0CSZ / KN6WH

For some things I remove flux with a spray can of carburetor cleaner.
It is a mix of Toluene, Acetone and Methanol.

____________________

That's a nasty combination. Be sure it never gets on any plastics.
======================
Indeed especially the toluene (a benzol derivative) is particularly nasty .
Do NOT bring in contact with skin or inhale. It can cause cancer.

Many moons ago some benzol (chemical formula C6H6) was added to car petrol
to increase the octane rating , but because of the above problems an
alternative was added to achieve the same. Also certain paints (for example
those for concrete workshop floors ) contained toluene (an excellent
solvent) but these are now banned ,at least in the EU.

Frank GM0CSZ / KN6WH

My suggestion... Keep an eye on ebay for a resonably priced
desoldering station. They come up all the time.

My suggestion... Keep an eye on ebay for a resonably priced
desoldering station. They come up all the time.

In a low-volume application an ordinary home dishwasher will do fine,
PROVIDED you use deionized water (not "soft" water) and a cleaner
designed specifically for the job. In my previous life I tested many
cleaners and the one which did the best job and left the least residue
was Armakleen E-2001 made by Arm and Hammer. A 55 gallon drum was about
$2k a few years ago. Good stuff, but I do miss Freon.

For what it's worth, National Semiconductor's resident wizard Bob
Pease used to clean circuit boards using an ordinary dishwasher and "a
standard charge of Calgonite". If I recall correctly, he suggested
taking the board out after the rinse cycle, doing a final rinse with
distilled or deionized water and then shaking the remaining water off
of the board prior to air-drying.

He reported that this method would get the cross-board leakage
currents for sensitive high-impedance circuitry down below what he was
able to achieve with organic-solvent washes.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!