Is it safe to clean eurorack boards with 99% IPA?

[waldenpotato]

I'm going to be building a handful of Oakley eurorack boards soon. I've got some 99% isopropyl alcohol. Is it safe for me to use this to clean the boards before I start soldering components on?

[htor]

yes, as long it's not indian pale ale you're good to go!

[smartwentcrazy]

I was so hoping someone was asking about cleaning these with beer. Hahahahaha

[waldenpotato]

Haha - funny. I could imagine accidentally spilling beer on the boards, resulting in needing to clean them.

I'm new to using this kind of alcohol to clean boards and wasn't sure if 99% was too strong.

[Synthbuilder]

I've got some 99% isopropyl alcohol. Is it safe for me to use this to clean the boards before I start soldering components on?

It's what I use to clean any boards when I have used rosin cored solder. I've not had any problems. The worst that could happen is that some of the silk screen might come off - but I have not had that with my current manufacturer.

If you did spill any of the other type of IPA on your boards, then warm water would be your best bet.

Tony

[waldenpotato]

Thanks for the help.

[emmaker]

I'm going to be building a handful of Oakley eurorack boards soon. I've got some 99% isopropyl alcohol. Is it safe for me to use this to clean the boards before I start soldering components on?

Cleaning with IPA is messy, hard sometimes and it's flammable. Better solution would be solder water washable parts (typically chips, resistors, ceramic/film caps, check data sheets for other parts) first with water soluble flux solder, wash and finish up the parts (sockets, connectors, pots, switches, electrolytics (some are, some aren't washable)) with no clean flux solder.

Jay S.

[waldenpotato]

I'm going to be building a handful of Oakley eurorack boards soon. I've got some 99% isopropyl alcohol. Is it safe for me to use this to clean the boards before I start soldering components on?

Cleaning with IPA is messy, hard sometimes and it's flammable. Better solution would be solder water washable parts (typically chips, resistors, ceramic/film caps, check data sheets for other parts) first with water soluble flux solder, wash and finish up the parts (sockets, connectors, pots, switches, electrolytics (some are, some aren't washable)) with no clean flux solder.

Jay S.

I'm going to be using this strategy for when I'm soldering components onto the boards. But I was asking about cleaning the boards before any soldering has started.

Appreciate the feeback.

[emmaker]

I'm going to be using this strategy for when I'm soldering components onto the boards. But I was asking about cleaning the boards before any soldering has started.

Appreciate the feeback.

OK, to me cleaning the boards is an essential part of soldering a board. A lot of people don't do it and end up with crapping soldering.

For a blank board I use a cleaning powder like Ajax or Comet and water, scrub it good and rinse it good. That should remove any oxidation. When dry I give it a good wipe with IPA to remove any oils or contaminates. Some times if I just want to clean a small area I use an ink eraser with a fine grit and then the IPA wipe.

Jay S.

[waldenpotato]

For a blank board I use a cleaning powder like Ajax or Comet and water, scrub it good and rinse it good. That should remove any oxidation. When dry I give it a good wipe with IPA to remove any oils or contaminates. Some times if I just want to clean a small area I use an ink eraser with a fine grit and then the IPA wipe.

Do you use a regular cotton cloth or rag to scrub with Ajax or Comet? Is there any chance this could damage my boards?

[emmaker]

For a blank board I use a cleaning powder like Ajax or Comet and water, scrub it good and rinse it good. That should remove any oxidation. When dry I give it a good wipe with IPA to remove any oils or contaminates. Some times if I just want to clean a small area I use an ink eraser with a fine grit and then the IPA wipe.

Do you use a regular cotton cloth or rag to scrub with Ajax or Comet? Is there any chance this could damage my boards?

I either use a cotton balls or cotton rags. Yes you could damage a board if you scrubbed it long and hard. Gold plating on boards is very thin and you could remove it, solder/tin plated boards are more robust. You really don't need to scrub it that much or that hard. Just use common sense, go over the board 2-3 times with light to medium pressure. Use enough pressure to feel like you're cleaning something but not like you're cleaning baked on grease. That should do it. If you have a scratch board might just give it a try on it first before you do your premium boards.

Good soldering.
Jay S.

[Synthbuilder]

I've never found the need to wipe over any of my boards with anything prior to soldering. However, I use Pb/Sn solder with a water washable flux core, or Pb/Sn with ersin (rosin) flux, which does tend to flow better than the unleaded formulas. If I did need to wipe down, say, because the board was older than a few years, I would use IPA only.

For I time I did use ENIG plating (with the gold coloured solder pads) for my boards and they certainly needed a wipe down if left long enough, and a bit of abrasion probably wouldn't have gone amiss too. All my current stock is lead free HASL which seems to work well for hand soldering.