Cleaning things (was Cleaning RK05 packs (Was: LGP-30 Memory Drum Update))

[allison]

On 01/06/2017 07:32 AM, David Bridgham wrote:
> On 01/05/2017 08:13 PM, allison wrote:
>
>> Lots of ifs, mights, and maybes.   My knowledge is from actually owning
>> and maintaining a Cessna since 1979 and so far that has not been an issue.
> Yup, that's just how the discussion in the aircraft community went.  One
> group would point out that Simple Green contained chemicals known to
> corrode aluminum while another group would say they'd been using the
> stuff on their airplanes and hadn't noticed any problems.  Then the
> company came out with Simple Green Extreme, promoting it as being safe
> for aircraft though never actually saying, as far as I saw, that the
> regular Simple Green wasn't safe.
>
>
I see that as the maker responded to a perceived problem and did their
marketing!

The bottom line is its seriously off topic and likely not an issue.  
To get on topic over the years I've used a number of things deemed bad
with full success.

An example was a few Altair era board with green crud plus dirt from the
prior holder storing them.
The green crud was the gold over copper plated contacts without nickel
over copper.  I decided
to keep them and ran them through the dishwasher with the usual
dishwasher caustic cleaner
(cascade) and the oven dry them.  They came out looking better than
factory and it even cleaned
the contacts.  They tested fine and I stripped the damaged gold and
re-plated the contacts with
electroless tin (didn't have the materials for nickel then gold) and
sill have them.  Back then the
locals on the board told me the boards would be ruined.

When doing repairs or restoration the person/organization doing it needs
to fist have goals, then
process, and the skills to implement them and maybe even mitigate side
effects.  What process
they use and can apply is dependent on available materials and the
available skills. Our advantage
now is is world wide near instant communication to ask what is best,
easy, fast, or cheap.

I envy the chance to restore a LGP-30 or for that fact play with one. 
Many of the things I remember
mid sixties on are now gone or were rare then.  Like small desk sized
drum computers using transistors
or first generation IC (RTL and RDTL).


Allison