[Heathkit] Cleaning up after Soldering and kit building.

[Walt - WB2VSJ]

When I was a CO-OP student (College work-study program) I worked for a
Military electronics sub-contractor in Upstate NY and they had a vat of
stuff they used to run circuit boards thru. Did a wonderful job of cleaning
the flux off the bottoms of the boards. The boards were done by hand, no
robots, the ladies the ladies on the assembly line were known on occasion to
using "generous" amounts of flux. 

The name of the cleaning stuff escapes me at the moment. It also removed the
oils right off your hands so that they were a nice chalky white if you got
any on your fingers.  

One day the boss decided the Christmas wreath that hung at the door at the
main entrance needed cleaning.  It was one of those plastic ones with fake
pine needles.  He put it in the vat for a minute and all that came out was
the metal support ring. Everyone else but him knew that the stuff ate
plastic and was careful in getting only the bottoms of the boards wet.

Tip - wear Latex or Nitrile gloves when handling bare or unfinished/unsealed
metals. Keeps them nice and clean. I've got another story about that for
another time ;)

Walt - WB2VSJ
http://heilsnis.com/wb2vsj/index.html


-----Original Message-----
From: heathkit-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:heathkit-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of kiyoinc at attglobal.net
Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 8:30 PM
To: heathkit at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Heathkit] Cleaning up after Soldering and kit building.

I recall a review of an SB-303 that had been "professionally" built.  
The reviewer remarked that the rosin flux had been "washed off" the 
circuit boards. This was one of the hall marks of a professional 
assembly job.

How do you do that?  Does water wash rosin off or do you use something 
else?   I visited a commercial assembly company and they had a huge 
machine that used de-ionized water to clean their circuit boards.

When I've built Heaths in the past, my finger dirt or sweat-salt has 
left marks on the aluminum panels.  I see that on the Heaths that I've 
been restoring.   Is there a way to keep the panels looking clean and 
shiny?

Some guys polish the chassis when doing restorations.  There's a guy on 
eBay who does that on Hallicrafters SX-100's.  If I were building a new 
kit, is there a way to polish and protect the metal before assembly?

de ah6gi/4


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