Altair Turnkey and some DEC stuff cheap

[Jay West]

People wrote...
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> So my plan of action is to stick them in water for a couple of days, 
> and then use a water jet to try and get down in the thin gap between 
> the contact blocks and the PCB, to clean it out.
>
> Does this sound OK? I can't think of a reason why immersing a 
> backplane in fresh water for a couple of days would do it any harm, 
> but maybe I'm missing something?

My usual cleaning process for such stuff is to give it a bath in simple
green (either the 1:10 I keep mixed up in spray bottles or 50/50 in a bucket
if the rodent mess is /really/ bad), scrub lightly with a small nylon
bristle brush, and rise. Once clean of the rodent mess, scrub at the
corrosion again with a baking soda and water paste mix and rinse again with
clean water. The cleaning process might well remove some loose copper, but
such traces are going to already be beyond salvage anyway.
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My 2 millidollars worth:
Cleaning with soap and water and a brush is a good idea. But remember that
water has minerals in it and leaving it on the board to just dry will
introduce corrosion over time as well.
I wash/scrub heavily "soiled" boards with soap and water, but then douse
them very very liberally with denatured alcohol. Denatured alcohol has the
property of getting into every tiny nook and crevice and forcing the water
out - so nothing potentially corrosive can be left behind to oxidize, etc.

J