Electronics > Beginners
Components dissolved/damaged by flux cleaners?
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Cerebus:

--- Quote from: Mick B on October 06, 2018, 01:45:42 pm ---Go into a bathroom with a can of Toluene pour some on a rag, then wait minuets, you will definitely be impaired, it is akin to sniffing glue. Toluene is the ingredient in glue that makes people high, perhaps that is why some people are advocating it's use.

--- End quote ---

Really? You're on your 12th ever message on the forum and you think it's a good idea to make snide remarks at its inhabitants? Early, casual use of insulting speech towards other people is a pretty good indicator of people who get banned in the end. To quote yourself "you have been warned".

As to the substance, what little there is, of your message I think everybody here is quite aware of the dangers of using any solvent in a confined space without adequate ventilation. That's pretty much the first warning label on any bottle of solvent. That you start out your argument by suggesting doing exactly what would be regarded by anybody as stupid behaviour, seeking out a confined poorly ventilated space to work in, is an indication of how weak and poorly thought out your argument is.

If one looks at the MSDS for isopropanol and toluene side by side they are almost identical in all the critical places, the only thing that stands out is that the toxicity levels for toluene are broadly 2-10 times higher (i.e. 1/10 - 1/2 the dose) than for isopropanol. In the case of both, in the warning diamond the fire risk gets top billing with a 3, with toxicity coming second, a 2 for toluene and a 1 for isopropanol. Both contain warnings of Central Nervous System toxicity but secondary to liver and kidney toxicity. For what it's worth the MSDS for Ethyl Alcohol would carry a CNS toxicity warning, but we drink beer and use isopropanol as a food additive. The mere presence of a toxicity warning on the MSDS for a substance does not mean that it is a 'deadly poison' in that regard.

So all the fuss about toluene's toxicity is (1) exaggerated, (2) less than the risk from burning yourself or your workshop down and I don't see a great  :scared: about that.

Rather than listen to ill-informed scaremongering I suggest people read the material safety data sheets for themselves, I've attached them. It's all pretty irrelevant in context anyway as I would say, based on personal experience and all the materials compatibility charts that I've seen over the years, that toluene is a very poor choice of cleaning solvent in a mixed plastics environment as it has poor compatibility with the majority of plastics used in electronics.
IanMacdonald:
Point to note about isopropanol is that it causes synthetic rubber to swell up. :wtf:

The effect may take weeks to show, so the cause and effect of the equipment seizing up might not be recognised.
james_s:
I have a can of toluene in my garage, breathing the fumes is not good for you, neither is breathing gasoline/petrol fumes but hundreds of millions of people use that every day. It's common sense that you use these sort of things in a well ventilated area and avoid breathing the fumes or getting the stuff on your body. Doesn't mean you'll drop dead if you look at the stuff.
Cerebus:

--- Quote from: IanMacdonald on October 06, 2018, 05:23:26 pm ---Point to note about isopropanol is that it causes synthetic rubber to swell up. :wtf:

--- End quote ---

That's entirely plausible, many solvents do that to varying degrees - methyl ethyl ketone is sold to the offset litho printing industry as 'blanket restorer' precisely because it makes rubber printing blankets bounce back to their prior thickness after they've been on press for a few hours.


--- Quote from: IanMacdonald on October 06, 2018, 05:23:26 pm ---The effect may take weeks to show, so the cause and effect of the equipment seizing up might not be recognised.

--- End quote ---

That's not so plausible. It may happen immediately while still in contact with the solvent but it won't happen weeks later after the solvent has evaporated. Common sense says that any effect is caused by solvent penetration so either it penetrates and causes the effect as it does so, or it evaporates and isn't there to have any effect whatsoever. If you think differently then please cite the mechanism of action with references to a reliable source that explains it - there's enough "heard it from a bloke down the pub" physical chemistry in this thread without adding more.
ogden:

--- Quote from: Cerebus on October 06, 2018, 06:31:54 pm ---If you think differently then please cite the mechanism of action with references to a reliable source that explains it - there's enough "heard it from a bloke down the pub" physical chemistry in this thread without adding more.

--- End quote ---

Here you go:

https://www.britannica.com/science/polyacrylate

[edit] Mechanism does not even need citation - imagine canister with alcohol inside, it's lid with rubber seal. First week you will not notice that seal disintegrates. It takes more than that. BTW exactly that happened with seal of my "lo cost" gas canister, in one year. Here we have alcohol additives in generic gasoline.
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