Barbara: In theory, cleaning should not be needed....however if the boards have sat around for a long time, or if the Gold plating was particularly porous...as may be evidenced by green residue on the gold...you may need to clean...and if you do, Only a full aqueous saponifier will cut the "green residue mustard", as you will need a cleaner that can dissolve Nickel residues, not a real easy task. There are many cleaners out their that will do the job, we make a good one, others do as well. Rudy Sedlak RD Chemical Company --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e 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 or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------