I've never done that to clean them, I don't think you need the board super clean for the transfer to work, really.
I've tried just cleaning with a (non-metal) pot scourer, and with that plus acetone, both ways the transfer worked just fine.
Whenever the transfer has failed for me it's been due to not enough heat or not enough time.
Also if you are using old magazine pages as some do, make sure to use pages with text only on both sides, graphics can cause problems. Not sure if it's that they act as a heat barrier or something else, either way they can cause failures.
--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "cramapple" <john_cchas@...> wrote:
>
> New to the group, have been reading for a few days and getting to try a pcb or two.
>
> I have read on here of the importance of cleaning the cladding and various ways to do that. Somewhere on here I read of someone who had good success by actually wiping or pre-etching the board prior to transfer. But now I have been searching for that message reference and cannot find it.
>
> What I was wanting to find out further was whether the poster, after pre-etching the board, then just rinsed in water or if he cleaned the fecl off with something else?
>
> Thanks,
> John C.
>