How do you clean monitor chassis boards

PrairieDillo

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A couple of my boards are very dirty and dusty.
Other than compressed air, what do you guys do when you want a pristine and clean board?

Alcohol and swabs? That takes too long to clean....
 
There was thread on here about putting them in the dishwasher.
 
actually the other thread talked about cleaning them with Simple Green and a hose. and letting them dry thoroughly.

discharge the monitor first, and for security reasons you can leave the anode cup on the tube (don't want water getting in there) and just have at it with the cleaning.

make sure to use compressed air to get the water out from under things like the flyback. preferably let it dry in the sun. you're in cali, maybe this is suitable at this time of year. :)

another option for drying is to heat up your oven to 175 F and let the removed chassis sit in there for about 15 or so minutes.

to be safe, wait a few days after doing all of these and you'll have a squeaky clean chassis that won't get nuked when you go to use it.

otherwise, I've personally had some luck cleaning PCBs with rubbing alcohol and an old toothbrush. you can use a small paintbrush too. Q-tips, whatever. and of course make sure it's thoroughly dry before using again.
 
i just use compressed air.. i tried the dishwasher trick and after having all the onboard pots glitchy after i was done i decided that was the first and last time to try cleaning via water and detergent.
 
I've put the past couple thousand right in the sink with a good degreaser and a brush
What product do you use? Do you put a towel in the sink to protect the boards while you clean them? Do you rinse off afterwords? I'm cleaning two this week and would appreciate a little more detail. You're a couple thousand times more experienced than I.
 
What product do you use? Do you put a towel in the sink to protect the boards while you clean them? Do you rinse off afterwords? I'm cleaning two this week and would appreciate a little more detail. You're a couple thousand times more experienced than I.

A good spray cleaner like Simple Green is what you want to use. No real nead for a towel, just handle them carefully, which you always should anyhow. Rinse the board off VERY good so you don't leave any residue from the cleaner. This is why I don't use a heavily concentrated cleaner like Dawn dish soap, it will take forever to wash completely off, it just keeps suddsing'. When done you can speed up the drying off process by blowing the chassis off with compressed air. Then leave it in the sun as long as possilbe. I leave mine sitting slanted so the water will run off the board instead of sitting on it.
 
I use the simple green trick as well. Then I take my shop vac, switch it to Blow and blow out the chassis for a few minutes. Let it sit in the sun for a day and then blow it out again to make sure there is no water coming out from any place. A few days later I plug it in.
 
if your going to use water always go over it real good with a air compressor.. get all that water out of the pots and neckboard socket.
 
You guys are missing out- MEAN Green is the stuff to use, Simple Green is weak sauce! It's a hell of a lot cheaper at Dollar General too, like a couple bucks a quart too.

I've washed them in the dishwasher when I've got several to do, otherwise I use Mean Green and a paint brush to gently work through the dirt, then a rinse with warm water. To speed things up drying I'll use compressed air to get the bulk of the water off, and either setting in the sun (summer) or heat vent (winter) to finish the job.
 
I just put em in a sink use water and paint brush. Let em dry for a few days with a fan on em. hasn't done me wrong yet. I'd tip them on there side as well. Good thing to do while waiting on parts.
 
I blast them out with canned air or an air compressor with the pressure valve set to around 30PSI; which I use depends on the tool at hand. Then I usually leave it like that, even if it still looks slightly dusty. After all, it's not like it's in an acrylic display case!

If a particular mess concerns me (usually for thermal reasons) and the air pressure doesn't lift it, I'll wipe it off with a cotton cloth, and if that doesn't do it, I'll carefully scrape it off with a screwdriver. (Yeah, I know that's risky, but I take my time, and mind the traces.)
 
what about denatured alcohol?

air compressor works but i'd prolly want a moisture and oil trap on it.
 
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