[Elecraft] Mineral spirits OK for cleaning boards?

[Dave Hottell]

Tom es group,


>You (obviously) already KNEW the answer and were just rtying to stir things 
>up???

No, absolutely not!!!  What makes you say that?  I guess I did not make my
question sufficiently clear, although it appeared perfectly clear to me.

What I wanted to know, but it seems to have gotten lost in the hyperbole,
is this: will mineral spirits dissolve flux without leaving a residue?  I
did not know that at the time, and so posted my query.  I did not imagine I
would be admonished about dissolving relays so phrased my question as I
did.  I never intended to submerge the entire board in a tank of mineral
spirits.  All I had in mind was to brush some on the bottom.

Here is my original question: Is mineral spirits OK for cleaning flux off
the boards upon completion?  

Nothing in there about submerging boards in solvents.  That was assumed by
the reader.  Nothing in there about it being an Elecraft board.  While
certainly a reasonable reader assumption, it is another assumption.
Nothing in there about cleaning entire boards per se, just cleaning the
flux *off* boards.  Nothing more.  I probably could have phrased it better,
but it appeared reasonable at the time.

You are correct in the sense that the answers I received from the list were
of no use to me, so I did a small experiment to determine the answer and,
by now, I do indeed have the answer.

But, I did not know then, nor do I know now, what flux consists of and what
solvents will dissolve it.  Mineral spirits does appear to do so.

Some of us would greatly appreciate it, if, when a question is posed on
here, it is simply answered, without great exclamations of pending
disaster.  Please don't weigh the question down or greatly expand it with
reader assumptions.  

Not everyone asked questions strictly about Elecraft and sometimes we use
unorthodox procedures that, while applicable to the job at hand, may not be
widely employed.  That doesn't mean our questions are any less valid.

Including a few words about precautions is always in order.  But the
original question ought to be addressed.

73 de Dave
ab9ca/4




At 08:34 AM 6/19/03 -0500, Tom Hammond wrote:
>So Dave...
>
>You (obviously) already KNEW the answer and were just rtying to stir things 
>up???
>
>Inquiring minds want to know...
>
>73,
>
>Tom  N0SS
>