The Moonman takes a shot with: Ok you folks, especially Doug and Brian, You let this gentleman down and me as well. So much for my appeal but the question is: Doug, wounded, replies: Sheesh, give a guy a break. I DO occasionally go off and work for my employer. The question has been asked about cleaning off built-up flux residues in in-circuit testing (ICT) pins. Many good answers have been given so far. I would stay away from any kind of immersion or heavy liquid applications of solvent. You don't want the solvents or cleaning agents to get down in the spring areas, because you won't get them out, and corrosion can occur. To clean or solvate the residue begs the question of what the residue consists of. Different low solids fluxes will have different solubility parameters, so the solvent chosen depends on the flux used. Pose the question back to the manufacturer of the flux you are using. I like the idea of a stiff nylon brush *moistened* with a suitable solvent and carefully applied. And NO, I would not suggest Mountain Dew as a universal solvent. I've seen what it does to keyboards. Your fixture should also be inverted or canted such that the fluid will not run down into the barrel of the pin. The idea of two brushes, one for primary cleaning and one for "rinsing" was a good one as well. If you choose to do the operation dry, as I have heard some people do, then the vacuum cleaner and ESD ionizer is a good way to go. I don't know how often you replace pins. We replace ours every X hits, but I don't have that figure immediately handy. You may just have to replace pins more often, depending on how costly that is for your volume. As Dave Hillman pointed out, we are now starting to face the same question as well as we start to try to cut down on the cleaning we do after our primary clean. Since ICT is affected, we have to answer that question. I wish I had a better answer to give. Doug Pauls Rockwell Collins --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search previous postings at: www.ipc.org > On-Line Resources & Databases > E-mail Archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------