My daughter works in archaeological artifact conservation, and deals regularly with issues of removing unknown substances from an artifact. The standard process in such cases is to start with the least-harsh solvents (water, then alcohol, then Goof-off, for example). Before you use any solvent on the affected part of the board, test to see if it will damage the board by putting a small amount on a q-tip and dab, then rub, on a corner of the board where it won't matter if the solvent damages traces or the non-trace areas. If it's going to damage the board, it will be apparent pretty quickly. rinse away any corrosive solvent with something known NOT to be corrosive (e.g. water).
The brown goop could contain a number of different chemicals, including weak acids such as boric acid and organic compounds such as glycol, so there's no single solvent that can be identified as guaranteed to be effective. I would try, in the specified order, water, alcohol, and then Goof-Off (which will dissolve many organic compounds) AFTER verifying that they won't corrode the circuit board itself). Lew K6LMP On Dec 25, 2010, at 11:04 PM, Vic K2VCO wrote: > I have a board (not an Elecraft product!) which has several SMD electrolytics > that have > failed, leaking brown, corrosive goop. The board is hard to find and > expensive. I am going > to try to fix it. > > Question: how do you clean the brown capacitor goop off the board? Some of > the traces may > be corroded, but I can't tell without getting this stuff off! And I don't > want to damage > them by scraping. > -- > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
