How do you make your PCB board with components look clean like commercial ones?

[W DeMarco]

CanIDoIt

I'm not sure but Ive inferred that your using flux in a bottle with your solder, which is most likely containing flux already?  If so you shouldnt need to add flux, just use the solder. 

I think you might have meant you bought a bottle of flux mistaking it for flux/rosin cleaner. 

If theres solder and flux spitting off your iron make sure to clean it on your sponge more often.  You should be able to get "neater" boards with practice and not need to clean them extensivley.  If you havent already, invest in a good iron.  A real good iron changes the game a bit!  I ust a weller WCTPT station.  100 bucks or so.

 

[owel]

Using alcohol just makes a big sticky mess. I avoid it.
Using a spray flux cleaner after the alcohol makes the board clean again and not sticky. But why do all that?

Just scrape the splattered flux using an orange stick and brush using a dry toothbrush. That's all you need. It comes out looking better than alcohol/flux cleaner processed boards.

** I'm assuming your boards have solder mask and not DIY home etched.

 

[canidoit]

Acetone or alcohol.

Doesn't any of the graphics, board laminate come off or components get damaged using this stuff like Acetone? I thought Acetone was used to clean paint brush and spray guns.

Regarding alcohol, the purer the better? Like in the 90% concentrate alcohol?

 

[ChrioN]

Doesn't any of the graphics, board laminate come off or components get damaged using this stuff like Acetone? I thought Acetone was used to clean paint brush and spray guns.

Nope

 

[Svart]

nah

Acetone is great for cleaning PCBs.

PCBs are hardy things.  At a previous job we used to get cards that had been accidentally submerged in water for periods of time when their case seals failed.  I used to stick them in an oven, bake them overnight at like 180F and then clean them with acetone.  99% of them worked fine if the corrosion hadn't eaten the traces off.

 

[fazeka]

I like Kester 285 & 245 (page 10), although the price doubled since I bought it 3 years ago (now about $30 for a 1# roll).

 

[OneRoomStudio]

The real trick is to use water-wash (organic core) solder and aqueous flux. That way when you're done soldering, you just use soap and hot water to clean the boards. Works better than anything else by a long shot. The only trick is to make sure all your parts are washable (pretty much everything besides pots, switches, unsealed relays, LCDs, and some inductors/transformers are washable).

 

[canidoit]

The real trick is to use water-wash (organic core) solder and aqueous flux. That way when you're done soldering, you just use soap and hot water to clean the boards. Works better than anything else by a long shot. The only trick is to make sure all your parts are washable (pretty much everything besides pots, switches, unsealed relays, LCDs, and some inductors/transformers are washable).

Thats confusing, I thought water is the last thing you want near pcb and components. I bought some Acetone. Will try it later tonight.

 

[canidoit]

Acetone is great for cleaning PCBs.

I just tried that Acetone stuff. That's bad news. 
It leaves sticky film of residue all over the PCB board. I am presuming it's the flux being spread out like peanut butter. It looks just as bad or even worse than no acetone used.

I will try this so called special flux remover stuff you get from Electronics stores and that.

We shall see.  8)

 

[Tubemooley]

I'm not actually trying to be a dick here...... Everyone has their own method. I use 99% IPA and two brushes (one stiff and one not stiff) and paper towels. And you could serve a 5-star meal on my circuit boards when I'm finished cleaning. And it takes me 2 minutes to clean a board. You have to dissolve the crusty gunk with a solvent and mechanical motion. And then you have to remove that now-liquid gunk physically. It doesn't just remove itself magically. You have to either blow it off with pressurized air or wipe it off manually with absorptive towels. Nothing cleans itself by just splashing some liquid on it. It usually takes me two alcohol washes. One to dissolve and remove 99% of the gunk. And then the second wash cleans off the first wash and the residue. You have to physically wipe off that second wash before it dries on its own. If you don't remove the wash and it dries on it's own, that's the residue right there. I can clean one of our 6" x 8" 4-layer circuit boards with 300 SMT components on it and over 20 connectors and terminals blocks in 3 minutes. Or use no-clean like SSL recommends. DW.

 

[canidoit]

I'm not actually trying to be a dick here...... Everyone has their own method. I use 99% IPA and two brushes (one stiff and one not stiff) and paper towels. And you could serve a 5-star meal on my circuit boards when I'm finished cleaning. And it takes me 2 minutes to clean a board. You have to dissolve the crusty gunk with a solvent and mechanical motion. And then you have to remove that now-liquid gunk physically. It doesn't just remove itself magically. You have to either blow it off with pressurized air or wipe it off manually with absorptive towels. Nothing cleans itself by just splashing some liquid on it. It usually takes me two alcohol washes. One to dissolve and remove 99% of the gunk. And then the second wash cleans off the first wash and the residue. You have to physically wipe off that second wash before it dries on its own. If you don't remove the wash and it dries on it's own, that's the residue right there. I can clean one of our 6" x 8" 4-layer circuit boards with 300 SMT components on it and over 20 connectors and terminals blocks in 3 minutes. Or use no-clean like SSL recommends. DW.

What's IPA? When my flux cleaner arrives I will try your method. See how that works. I hope my board laminate isn't coming off though.

 

[Kingston]

IPA = Isopropyl alcohol.

the standard alcohol that everyone here seems to recommend, since there's pretty much no way it can harm your boards or parts, and it's not carcinogenic or overly toxic in general.

I think Tubemooley and Svart described the best process that can be adapted to any cleaning task. The most important part seems to be that you have to use something to actually *physically* remove the gunk. A cleaning solution itself is not gonna magically remove anything, and will just make everything sticky and spread the gunk around.

 

[timcas]

I use essentially the same method as Tubemooley, and have for nearly 20 years. First, soak the board for
10 minutes in the "dirty" 99 % IPA, then scrub with the "dirty" scrub brush. Drain and shake as much of the "dirty" alcohol as possible off, then rinse in the "clean" alcohol bath, scrub with the "clean" scrub brush,
and rinse again. Dry with compressed air or a hair dryer. Streaks can be spot cleaned and blown dry.
Humid weather causes more streaking. When streaking becomes excessive, dump the "clean' alcohol into
the "dirty" jug. If there are non-sealed pots on the board, try to keep the alcohol out of them - it dissolves
the grease that makes them feel "expensive".

 

[Clbraddock]

Absolutely not necessarily at all.

60/40 is just the tin/lead percentage. Rosin flux is available in both corrosive and no-clean variants.

Here, for example is a link to 60/40 no-clean, non-corrosive solder.

Keith

Found this googling about flux. I've been using rosin flux core solder and always assumed all rosin flux it required cleaning. I looked at my data sheet and what I have been using is no clean. Data sheet also says IPA won't remove it - so maybe thats why I have been going through like a gallon of IPA per board trying to get them clean lol. Glad I found your post and it taught me the correct info.