Date   : Thu, 08 Feb 2007 21:21:27 +0000
From   : tim.fardell@... (Tim Fardell)
Subject: B 64k - is it a lost cause?

Sprow wrote:
> In article <45CB81E0.5060305@...>,
>    Tim Fardell <tim.fardell@...> wrote:
>> Philip Pemberton wrote:
>>> Tim Fardell wrote:
>>>> Is the dishwasher really a safe way to clean PCBs? My dishwasher 
>>>> doesn't have a "warm" setting - it's 65 degrees C or nothing.
>> But isn't dishwasher powder extremely corrosive???
> 
> They're strong alkalis, which is bad news for anything organic like human
> skin as it turns fats and proteins into water soluble emulsions. Obviously
> that's great for shifting gravy and other mess off plates, while not
> dissolving your metal cutlery.
> 
> Aluminium is not good in dishwashers as it tends to go foggy, and on that
> basis you might find the end caps of electrolytic capacitors aren't as shiny
> as when they went in - but on the whole the rest of a PCB is just made up of
> 
>  enamel (caps and coatings)
>  fibreglass (board)
>  copper (tracks)
>  brass (legs)
>  nickel/tin/lead (solder and encaps)
>  plastic (cases)
> 
> all of which are quite happy being washed,
> Sprow.

Very interesting! I've got a mucky Spectrum PCB that could do with a 
clean! Will it take the legends off chips etc?