Enlighten a total novice

[Tony Clark]

> >1.  How do you keep the water from corroding the leads and components on
> the other side of the board?
> 
> Components are water proof.
> When things are desperate, people actually wash boards in diswashers (TRUE!)

   Actually, the best thing to do is to blow-dry the boards after they 
have been washed.  Why?  Well, unless you have seriously soft water, the 
water can leave mineral deposits AND/OR leave rust deposits on the 
circuit board!
   I should know as my business uses a dishwasher (not for the desperate 
as industrial washers are EXTREMELY expensive) to wash boards after they 
come out of a wave soldering machine.  One switch that we use can develop 
small rust circles if water is left on them.  So we use a simple air 
compressor to blow the water off (as the dry cycle on a dishwasher is not 
adequate to remove water especially from the undersides of ICs).

> >2.  What's the advantage of cleaning the flux?  Is it a performance
> improvement 

   For organic based fluxes, it's crucial to remove it as it is an acid 
and will seriously mess up your board.  As for any rosin-based flux, you 
can choose from one of two camps.  The one camp that says all flux is 
evil and should be removed, and the other camp which says you probably 
will never run into a case where it will make a whit of a difference.
   I'm from the latter camp as I have yet to run across a board that 
didn't work due to rosin flux.  Of course, I will be the first to say that 
you should maintain a clean soldering tip at all times, which will reduce 
the amount of flux buildup on your circuit board.
   Most of us don't build circuits that would fall into the category of 
needing super clean circuit boards.  I'd certainly would like to know of 
a synth circuit that falls into that category.

   Tony

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I can't drive (my Moog) 55!         |     The E-Music DIY Archive
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Tony Clark -- clark at andrews.edu     | aupe.phys.andrews.edu/diy_archive
http://aupe.phys.andrews.edu/~clark |     Contributions welcomed!
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