23 Jun
2014
23 Jun
'14
10:52 p.m.
Hello all and thank you for adding me to the list.
I am in the process of restoring a NorthStar Horizon machine. The boards in this machine
have a significant amount of flux residue on them - it certainly appears that this
particular machine was constructed from a kit. My question is about this flux - should I
be removing it as part of my cleanup, or should I leave it in place? I know that this
isn't a super-collectible machine or anything, but I've never come across this
issue in any other machine in my collection, and I was wondering what the general
consensus was. I'm perfectly aware of the corrosive nature of the flux and how to
remove it, however this flux has been there for 35+ years.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Ian
24 Jun
24 Jun
8:25 a.m.
There were various fluxes about, some were sold as no-clean, meaning
once cold no (little) further corrosion. Inspect around and check the
condition and then decide whether cleaning is more damaging than leave
it on.
Dave Caroline
On 23/06/2014, Ian McLaughlin <ian at platinum.net> wrote:
Hello all and thank you for adding me to the list.
I am in the process of restoring a NorthStar Horizon machine. The boards in
this machine have a significant amount of flux residue on them - it
certainly appears that this particular machine was constructed from a kit.
My question is about this flux - should I be removing it as part of my
cleanup, or should I leave it in place? I know that this isn't a
super-collectible machine or anything, but I've never come across this issue
in any other machine in my collection, and I was wondering what the general
consensus was. I'm perfectly aware of the corrosive nature of the flux and
how to remove it, however this flux has been there for 35+ years.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Ian
3:10 p.m.
On 6/24/2014 12:25 AM, Dave Caroline wrote:
There were various fluxes about, some were sold as
no-clean, meaning
once cold no (little) further corrosion. Inspect around and check the
condition and then decide whether cleaning is more damaging than leave
it on.
Dave Caroline
There were a lot of fluxes which were not a problem, just didn't
look
nice. Some hardened up, some stayed gooey and attracted dust, which was
a problem.
Also I don't recall any that were water soluble then. We always had
freon to clean the boards, which didn't damage the components. Only
risk I recall was that you didn't want to immerse anything that could
have flux on it, as it went into solution and got distributed over
everything, unless you used a flux bath machine which removed it from
solution.
So things like switches still had to be sealed or you could risk making
them not close. You never wanted to do that anyway, I'm just mentioning
what happened when you didn't seal such as switches.
So I don't know how or what you'd use to clean it that would not damage
the board worse than leaving it. Hopefully it is now pretty much lost
all the volatiles and is hard resin.
They never should have used any corrosive core in electronic manufacture
anyway, that should not be a problem. That would have caused problems
before now if they had used it anyway.
On 23/06/2014, Ian McLaughlin <ian at
platinum.net> wrote:
Hello all and thank you for adding me to the
list.
I am in the process of restoring a NorthStar Horizon machine. The boards in
this machine have a significant amount of flux residue on them - it
certainly appears that this particular machine was constructed from a kit.
My question is about this flux - should I be removing it as part of my
cleanup, or should I leave it in place? I know that this isn't a
super-collectible machine or anything, but I've never come across this issue
in any other machine in my collection, and I was wondering what the general
consensus was. I'm perfectly aware of the corrosive nature of the flux and
how to remove it, however this flux has been there for 35+ years.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Ian
11:47 a.m.
Ian,
I built mine from kit and there is (rosin) flux residue on the boards. My
machine is running fine, so I wouldn't try to remove it.
-- Bob Ammerman
RAm Systems
-----Original Message-----
From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org]
On Behalf Of Ian McLaughlin
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2014 5:52 PM
To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
Subject: NorthStar Horizon restoration question
Hello all and thank you for adding me to the list.
I am in the process of restoring a NorthStar Horizon machine. The boards in
this machine have a significant amount of flux residue on them - it
certainly appears that this particular machine was constructed from a kit.
My question is about this flux - should I be removing it as part of my
cleanup, or should I leave it in place? I know that this isn't a
super-collectible machine or anything, but I've never come across this issue
in any other machine in my collection, and I was wondering what the general
consensus was. I'm perfectly aware of the corrosive nature of the flux and
how to remove it, however this flux has been there for 35+ years.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Ian
4:16 p.m.
On Jun 23, 2014, at 5:52 PM, Ian McLaughlin <ian at platinum.net> wrote:
Hello all and thank you for adding me to the list.
I am in the process of restoring a NorthStar Horizon machine. The boards in this machine
have a significant amount of flux residue on them - it certainly appears that this
particular machine was constructed from a kit. My question is about this flux - should I
be removing it as part of my cleanup, or should I leave it in place? I know that this
isn't a super-collectible machine or anything, but I've never come across this
issue in any other machine in my collection, and I was wondering what the general
consensus was. I'm perfectly aware of the corrosive nature of the flux and how to
remove it, however this flux has been there for 35+ years.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
If it?s a kit, the flux is 99% likely rosin flux. That?s been used with electronics for
many decades, and while in theory it can be removed, I?ve never heard of anyone doing it
nor of any device suffering from having it stay on.
Modern industrial fluxes are not rosin, but either water-soluble flux or ?no clean? flux.
The latter is designed to be left on without ill effects. The former definitely needs to
be removed (but you can do that with warm water). Either can be bought nowadays at least
from electronics supply companies (you?re not likely to find them at Radio Shack or the
local hardware store). But I would not expect that?s what you are looking at.
Rosin flux residue is often rosin-colored ? yellowish or light brown translucent blobs.
paul
5:02 p.m.
On Jun 24, 2014, at 8:16 AM, Paul Koning <paulkoning at comcast.net> wrote:
On Jun 23, 2014, at 5:52 PM, Ian McLaughlin <ian at platinum.net> wrote:
It definitely appears to be rosin-core - typical hobbyist. I'm not concerned about
any ongoing damage. My main concern is with restoration and collecting. For example,
what would one do with an Apple I with flux on it? Is the presence of flux part of the
original machine, or is it 'dirt' that needs to be removed?
Thanks everyone for your comments.
Hello all and thank you for adding me to the
list.
I am in the process of restoring a NorthStar Horizon machine. The boards in this machine
have a significant amount of flux residue on them - it certainly appears that this
particular machine was constructed from a kit. My question is about this flux - should I
be removing it as part of my cleanup, or should I leave it in place? I know that this
isn't a super-collectible machine or anything, but I've never come across this
issue in any other machine in my collection, and I was wondering what the general
consensus was. I'm perfectly aware of the corrosive nature of the flux and how to
remove it, however this flux has been there for 35+ years.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
If it?s a kit, the flux is 99% likely rosin flux. That?s been used with electronics for
many decades, and while in theory it can be removed, I?ve never heard of anyone doing it
nor of any device suffering from having it stay on.
Modern industrial fluxes are not rosin, but either water-soluble flux or ?no clean? flux.
The latter is designed to be left on without ill effects. The former definitely needs to
be removed (but you can do that with warm water). Either can be bought nowadays at least
from electronics supply companies (you?re not likely to find them at Radio Shack or the
local hardware store). But I would not expect that?s what you are looking at.
Rosin flux residue is often rosin-colored ? yellowish or light brown translucent blobs.
paul 
25 Jun
25 Jun
4:50 a.m.
Even the no clean type has some conductivity. We did analog boards
with the stuff and still had to wash it off. Rosin never caused
any problems even into the 100's of megohms.
Dwight
Subject: Re: NorthStar Horizon restoration question
From: paulkoning at comcast.net
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 11:16:21 -0400
To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
On Jun 23, 2014, at 5:52 PM, Ian McLaughlin <ian at platinum.net> wrote:
Hello all and thank you for adding me to the
list.
I am in the process of restoring a NorthStar Horizon machine. The boards in this machine
have a significant amount of flux residue on them - it certainly appears that this
particular machine was constructed from a kit. My question is about this flux - should I
be removing it as part of my cleanup, or should I leave it in place? I know that this
isn't a super-collectible machine or anything, but I've never come across this
issue in any other machine in my collection, and I was wondering what the general
consensus was. I'm perfectly aware of the corrosive nature of the flux and how to
remove it, however this flux has been there for 35+ years.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
If it?s a kit, the flux is 99% likely rosin flux. That?s been used with electronics for
many decades, and while in theory it can be removed, I?ve never heard of anyone doing it
nor of any device suffering from having it stay on.
Modern industrial fluxes are not rosin, but either water-soluble flux or ?no clean? flux.
The latter is designed to be left on without ill effects. The former definitely needs to
be removed (but you can do that with warm water). Either can be bought nowadays at least
from electronics supply companies (you?re not likely to find them at Radio Shack or the
local hardware store). But I would not expect that?s what you are looking at.
Rosin flux residue is often rosin-colored ? yellowish or light brown translucent blobs.
paul
3619
days inactive
3620
days old
6 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
-
dave.thearchivist＠gmail.com -
dkelvey＠hotmail.com -
ian＠platinum.net -
jws＠jwsss.com -
paulkoning＠comcast.net -
rvammerman＠roadrunner.com