Wanted to share a tip on deep cleaning circuit boards. Fairly rudimentary, but there are a lot of differing opinions on how to do this.
Never cleaned PCBs that were this nasty. Disgusting. I wish I took better "before" photos. This thing was sitting unloaded for almost 25 years in dusty storage and even before that it was always just a “parts” board. Went through a gallon of 99% isopropyl alcohol and plenty of other cleaning supplies.
Here is what I did, taking some tips from arcade machine restoration forums -- the main takeaway is using Simple Green:
After this whole cleaning process, it will be important to touch up contact things like edge connectors, gold finger edges, I/O jacks and connectors (Molex Mate-n-Lock in my case), etc with high quality contact cleaner such as DeOxIt D5.
I actually started with 99.9% IPA loaded into an old waterpik flosser which was very funny. It was great for blasting grime out the EDAC edge connectors since you can get the nozzle in real close, but doesn’t hold much liquid so it ran out pretty quick. Rather than reload it every 30 seconds, I just went with a heavy duty spray bottle instead.
The Simple Green trick was recommended by vintage arcade and vintage computer people and was really an incredible technique that I will definitely use again in the future. Was also helpful for scrubbing down the rest of the console without damaging the finish.
If your boards have active components (these backplanes do not) you’ll want to remove those if possible. Might want to tape off off pots switches with some masking tape, as well. I’m going have to do this again to most of the individual console cards/modules and also figure out an efficient and safeway to deep clean the P&G faders (not gonna use IPA for that).
Never cleaned PCBs that were this nasty. Disgusting. I wish I took better "before" photos. This thing was sitting unloaded for almost 25 years in dusty storage and even before that it was always just a “parts” board. Went through a gallon of 99% isopropyl alcohol and plenty of other cleaning supplies.
Here is what I did, taking some tips from arcade machine restoration forums -- the main takeaway is using Simple Green:
- Brush off all dust possible with a nice fine paintbrush. Can of compressed air would help too.
- Blast everything with 99.9% isopropyl alcohol in a strong spray bottle.
- Give any spots that are still nasty a blast of Simple Green and scrub with toothbrush. The Simple Green really helps with grime.
- Rinse the Simple Green remnants off with distilled water (in a spray bottle) until it’s all clear.
- Blast again with 99.9% isopropyl alcohol to help evaporate any leftover
After this whole cleaning process, it will be important to touch up contact things like edge connectors, gold finger edges, I/O jacks and connectors (Molex Mate-n-Lock in my case), etc with high quality contact cleaner such as DeOxIt D5.
I actually started with 99.9% IPA loaded into an old waterpik flosser which was very funny. It was great for blasting grime out the EDAC edge connectors since you can get the nozzle in real close, but doesn’t hold much liquid so it ran out pretty quick. Rather than reload it every 30 seconds, I just went with a heavy duty spray bottle instead.
The Simple Green trick was recommended by vintage arcade and vintage computer people and was really an incredible technique that I will definitely use again in the future. Was also helpful for scrubbing down the rest of the console without damaging the finish.
If your boards have active components (these backplanes do not) you’ll want to remove those if possible. Might want to tape off off pots switches with some masking tape, as well. I’m going have to do this again to most of the individual console cards/modules and also figure out an efficient and safeway to deep clean the P&G faders (not gonna use IPA for that).
