Joachim- cool. Did not know you did that too.
Alex- yeah, I didn't know that. I know I normally use distilled water with
my general solution, and have used
tap water with no issue. Wondered what deionized water was for. Cool. I
knew denatured alcohol doesn't hurt
electronics.
You can use nearly anything other than straight water in an ultrasonic (it
needs some medium in the solution to
conduct the pulse through, from what I was told, or it hurts transducers),
so you can use flammable stuff- but
it is very dangerous. Creates a fine mist of explosive vapor above the
tank- not smart. You could do it outside,
but it's really not a good idea. Makers of these things universally
recommend you don't do that.
There is a technique, though, to use things like tri-chloro-ethaline
(one-dip, powerful solvent I use for cleaning
hairsprings) in an ultrasonic, where the parent bath is standard solution,
and you put glass container in a basket
full of volatile solvents/what have you in suspension in the main bath. The
ultrasonic action works through the
glass and brings the cavitation to the solvent in a safer, controlled
manner.
-Andrew
On Wed, Feb 17, 2016 at 9:09 PM, Andrew C. <soshumasamune@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Chad,
Did some research, should have realized this earlier, but didn't-
ultrasonic cleaners exactly like mine are widely
used for this sort of thing, apparently it is standard to ultrasonically
clean circuitboards with PCBs and all.
I use mine for watchmaking and tool cleaning, so I did not know this. Yes,
I found a few special solutions
that are formulated specifically to clean circuitry. As long as I keep
using distilled water, and dry well
(I'd probably hang them up under a cover, and pack them in anti-static
bags with dessicant pellets, as
I have storing harddrives). Apparently I have the best type of ultrasonic
for this sort of thing, and I didn't know.
I can help, and I'm sure I'd handle boards very carefully with gloves the
whole way, but I will still need to
know how big boards are. I can't do anything bigger than can fit in my
model. Also, I will never use it myself,
but the solution to do this isn't cheap- looks like best stuff is Elma Tec
Clean A1 solution, probably followed
by Branson EC electronics solution. If these boards can fit in my cleaner,
and they're willing to pay for the
solution, I can do it just for the cost of solution. Money's pretty tight
now with the car wreck.
Here is a link to my cleaner, you can forward this to the Akron people to
show them if my cleaner will fit
their boards-
http://www.elma-ultrasonic.com/fileadmin/downloads/Produktprofile/Produktprofile_EN/Ultraschallgeraete/Elmasonic_S/PP_Elmasonic_S40H_EN.pdf
-Andrew
On Wed, Feb 17, 2016 at 8:21 PM, Andrew C. <soshumasamune@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Chad,
My ultrasonic is an Elma S40H, same as used by chemical compounding
labratories and such.
The best there is basically.
I can clean anything that fits in it- but I need to know how big the
boards are. Also- assuming boards mean
they want this ultrasonically cleaned, while components are still
attached.
I don't know if it is safe to ultrasonically clean in a water based
solution electrical circuitry. I'm pretty sure that
would help destroy it. So not sure this would work for what they need.
There are special solutions available that
are non-water based, and there may be one for cleaning assembled
electronics.
I need more details as to how they need the boards cleaned, ie, what got
on them. I have not tried cleaning
circuitry before other than basic stuff- not boards covered in chips.
I'll look into special solutions for ultrasonic, and see if there is one
that can be used for this.
-Andrew
On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 7:22 PM, Chad Elish <chad@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
They need to ultrasonic clean some circuit boards. I was curious if your
cleaner could do the job.
-chad
On Feb 16, 2016, at 5:28 PM, Andrew C. <soshumasamune@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Chad,
I'm lost- what machine do I have that will fix a laser cutter?
What do you mean? Not sure if I can help, I don't quite understand your
question
-Andrew
On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 12:29 PM, Chad Elish <chad@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
The Akron Makerspace just got a broken laser cutter that had some
damage to it. They need to clean some of the circuit boards and test it
out.
Do we know of anyone who can do this?
Andrew, can your machine do this?
-chad
