I am fortunate to have a contact who works at a hospital in the supply chain and I asked him once what they did with the out of date alcohol wipes that are used prior to a needle injection and he said they simply get discarded, I told him to keep an eye out for some and a few weeks later he turned up with a big box of them, I still have hundreds of them left and a constant supply if required.
I remember Dave mentioning once that he buys them from the supermarket and I have since seen them in boxes on the shelves but they are relatively expensive compared to IPA in a bottle, certainly worth a look otherwise another option would be to ask your local doctor to put some aside, these wipes are fine to use for most clean up applications but they can leave the odd fibre behind, no big deal considering how quick and convenient they are.
I've used ethanol fireplace fuel, and while it's a good cleaner, the Bitrex (denatonium) denaturant makes everything bitter, from my fingers, to the outside of my spray bottles... even just grabbing them later spreads bitrex everywhere. (I don't know what the electrical properties of bitrex are, either.)
Separating the alcohol from the water is easy enough - any high school chemistry laboratory has the apparatus required, and any competent handyman could build it from commonly available hardware and domestic utensils. However, safety when distilling it is more difficult - Ethanol vapour is dense and has a lower explosive limit in air of only 3.3% and a flash point of 14 deg C - and in most countries obtaining a licence to distill alcohol legally is even more difficult (and expensive), or totally impossible for a private individual.
I does not matter for removing flux but I have heard horror stories about store bought IPA and hardware store bought solvents being contaminated with things making them poor cleaners if you want something actually clean. This is easy enough to test on an optical surface. It really is a sad state of affairs that the only thing preventing use of the safest and most effective cleaners are politics.
Separating the alcohol from the water is easy enough - any high school chemistry laboratory has the apparatus required, and any competent handyman could build it from commonly available hardware and domestic utensils. However, safety when distilling it is more difficult - Ethanol vapour is dense and has a lower explosive limit in air of only 3.3% and a flash point of 14 deg C - and in most countries obtaining a licence to distill alcohol legally is even more difficult (and expensive), or totally impossible for a private individual.
Look for ethanol fuel at fireplace stores and fireplace sections in big box stores. In Canada we have Bio Fuel brand which is 95% ethanol
http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/bioflame-ethanol-3-78l-0643537p.html
Also go to woodworking stores and look for ethanol based lacquer thinners such as this one
http://www.leevalley.com/en/Wood/page.aspx?p=20107&cat=1,190,42942I've used ethanol fireplace fuel, and while it's a good cleaner, the Bitrex (denatonium) denaturant makes everything bitter, from my fingers, to the outside of my spray bottles... even just grabbing them later spreads bitrex everywhere..
Here in the USA you can obtain KleenStrip Green denatured alcohol from hardware stores, which consists mainly of ethanol, methanol and other organic solvents. It is good for cleaning and seems to leave no residue.
This is where solvent grades matter. Depending on who you talk to, the grades from best to worst are: semiconductor (99.999+% pure, £60 a litre), spectroscopy (typical 1 ppm residue on evaporation, 99.9+% pure), analytical (99.8+% pure), reagent (99.5%), technical (99%) and commercial (95-8% pure).
I wish Switzerland allowed for ethanol to be denatured with other solvents, but as far as I've been able to tell, the only denaturant allowed here is Bitrex.
(I know there's a mechanism for labs and stuff to procure un-denatured ethanol without paying alcohol excise tax, of course. I don't really care if it's denatured, I just want it without the cursed bitrex!)
P.P.P.S. Does anyone know where to get Kimwipes or equivalent in Switzerland???
I wish Switzerland allowed for ethanol to be denatured with other solvents, but as far as I've been able to tell, the only denaturant allowed here is Bitrex.
(I know there's a mechanism for labs and stuff to procure un-denatured ethanol without paying alcohol excise tax, of course. I don't really care if it's denatured, I just want it without the cursed bitrex!)
I would think that the Bitrex is negligible, as far as residue is concerned? Current German requirements for denaturing seem to be: 1% iso-propanol, 1% methyl ethyl ketone, and 0.001% Bitrex; I assume the recipe will be quite similar across Europe. The Bitrex ("world's most bitter substance") is just to really make sure you don't want to drink the stuff... https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verg%C3%A4llung - sorry, German only.
P.P.P.S. Does anyone know where to get Kimwipes or equivalent in Switzerland???Edmund Optics
(https://www.edmundoptics.com/lab-production/cleaning/lens-tissue-cloth/)
Thor labs
(https://www.thorlabs.com/newgrouppage9.cfm?objectgroup_id=330)
Both have stocks in Europe and do delivery there.
Another option is to look for "lens tissues", a lot of brands (mostly cheap Chinese) on ebay, and they are mostly good for everyday cleaning when you don't want residues.
If you're looking for a quality brand you can try Tiffen (Kodak used to rebrand them back in the day).
If you need bigger wipes also a lot of the cleaning stuff you can find at the suppliers for "clean rooms", there are several in DE that might deliver to you.
This is where solvent grades matter. Depending on who you talk to, the grades from best to worst are: semiconductor (99.999+% pure, £60 a litre), spectroscopy (typical 1 ppm residue on evaporation, 99.9+% pure), analytical (99.8+% pure), reagent (99.5%), technical (99%) and commercial (95-8% pure).My local pharmacy/chemist carries a few grades of IPA, and I've normally bought technical, but the pharmacy tech girl there actually didn't know what the grades meant and thus couldn't explain it to me. Thanks for this!
Have you worked with alcohol with Bitrex in it? I made the mistake of cleaning my eyeglasses with it once. For a week, if I touched my glasses and then put my fingers in my mouth (think like adjusting glasses while eating), it could taste that damned stuff.
I don't think it's a big problem for most electronics, the issue is the bitter residue it leaves on everything. Alcohol is a useful household solvent, but not when it coats everything in bitterness that gets everywhere. IPA is easy enough to get, but I wish I could get something less odorous -- ethanol is much better in that regard.
What would be proper and easily available alternative to isopropyl alcohol to cleanup spots/excess of liquid flux after soldering?
isopropyl alcohol is not available in local electronic stores, pharmacy drugstores does non sell even 100% ethyl alcohol, while 70% ethyl alcohol does not help much.