What is best to use in cleaning track after soldering? I have read that you should use Denatured Alcohol. Can I use Isopropyl alcohol instead. Where do you get denatured alcohol and what is the difference?
You can use Isopropyl alcohol to clean the flux off if it is the 90% kind. The 70% stuff won't touch the flux.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
You can get denatured alcohol in stores that sell paint. Home depot and Lowe's both sell it. Denatured alcohol is ethanol that has been made undrinkable by the addition of chemicals.
Joe
The best stuff for getting flux off is Freon, but they won't let us use that anymore, it destroys the ozone layer, or so they say. Anyway they don't sell it anymore.
Alcohol does dissolve flux, a little bit. Stronger is better. I don't think the exact kind of alcohol matters to the flux, but the strength of the mixture does. 100% alcohol would be best, 91% is better than 70%. The liquid is alcohol mixed with water, and the water does not dissolve flux at all. So the less water, the better.
Pure alcohol (100%) is "hygroscopic". It wants to mix with water, and the want is strong enough to pull water right out of the air. If you were to leave 100% alcohol out in a dish, pretty soon it would not be 100%. Nobody sells 100% alcohol because it wouldn't stay at 100% very long.
Denatured alcohol is drinking alcohol (ethanol to chemists) mixed with a poison to keep people from drinking it. You can buy denatured alcohol for industrial and home handyman purposes without paying the $10 a gallon liquor tax. Most common use of denatured alcohol is for thinning shellac. You can find it in the paint department under the label of 'shellac thinner".
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
100 proof,''Old Grand Dad'',, works..LOL.
Cheers,
Frank
I use a Bright Boy with a little "elbow grease", then wipe down with 70% isopropyl alcohol.
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Pour enough 100 proof, "Old Grand Dad" into the system and flux on the rails becomes illusionary.
Don H.
glutrain Pour enough 100 proof, "Old Grand Dad" into the system and flux on the rails becomes illusionary. Don H.
Don H,
There you go,,,what flux,,,,LOL..
Foxy Flux Flox...
LION puts a glob af flux where him wants solder to stick to rail web.
LION applies heat, Flux burns away. All Gone!
If you accidentally get solder on top of the rail, apply more heat, or just file it off.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS