best thermal grease remover

[coppercone2]

Pondering the eternal question, are tissues and alcohol even worth spending on this shit, I found possibly the best method for removing thermal grease when cleaning a larger ceramic object and aluminum from thermal grease


put it in the sink, splash a bit of water on it, then pour a big mound of baking soda on top. You don't want a liquid or even a slurry, more like a mashed potato. This basically means rubbing on a pile of baking soda that is basically dry on top with your thumbs.  Make sure your hands are dry when you start because the extra moisture on your hands will dissolve the mound and cause you to waste baking soda. As the baking soda mush on the bottom changes color and loses cleaning power you need to add more.

I noticed it removes it great and much faster then anything else. When you lose cleaning power just rinse it off and pour more baking soda on it. It seems to clean thermal grease off aluminum and ceramic just fine.

I would not be surprized if the old brass polish, meaning add some flour would help longevity of the cleaning mound.

I am sick of buying q-tips and task wipes and alcohol. i knew there was a better way

[SeanB]

I use WD40 on a cloth, to get the majority off, then another wipe with a clean section of the cloth and more WD40, then swap to a wipe with the alcohol and a clean cloth to get the oil off. Then I use some silicone oil and apply a thin film to the surfaces, and then a thin blob of heatsink compound spread over the top, then apply the heatsink. After all, you do not need all the old stuff off, it has has to be removed from the active surfaces.

[coppercone2]

try this method instead of jumping through hoops

I literarly spent like a long time scrubbing with a stiff brush and alcohol and oils whatever. this just seems to work.

I am growing weary of using rags too. 

now with this I have one of those sinks that has the divider so you can put the parts on top of it there and scrub it and wash it down the drain like a thug and its all clean and nice without any god damn rags or sponges or brushes or expensive chemicals etc.

I kinda wonder what else it will clean. I wonder if it would be good at cleaning silicone and adhesives that need to be removed from scrapers and putty knives and shit like that. I just know it will solidify super glue instantly so its not good for that one. But for some reason I imagine it might keep your epoxy mixing plate looking good. Always a god damn hassle to have to clean up the putty knife like mini tools and stuff that you use for glue. Or like cups for glue pouring and mixing operations.

At the rate that stuff goes I wish I had a alcohol gland in my mouth so I can spit it on stuff I need to clean when working with adhesives greases and pastes, along with flashlight eyes.

[jpanhalt]

Damn, it's impossible to find a question there.

Like dissolves like.  Oil and grease are cleaned/dissolved by hydrocarbons and other relatively non-polar organic solvents.  Hence, light hydrocarbons like WD-40 work.  Short-chain alcohols are good for more polar substances.  Complex solvents and "special" solvents, e.g., HMPA, 2-methyl pyrrolidone (2-MP), cellosolves, are good for more difficult situations.

[m98]

Flux remover sprays tend to work quite well when you want to remove thermal paste from components.

[wraper]

I don't see a point using all sorts of stuff that create contamination by themselves. I wipe the vast majority old thermal paste with a dry paper towel or scrape it off with a piece of plastic card if hardened. Greatly helps to avoid creating mess. Then I remove what's left with paper a towel soaked in IPA from a heatsink and chip heat spreader. For chips with bare silicon, I use toothbrush and IPA to remove thermal paste between the caps. Never had a problem doing this, using baking soda or WD-40 to me seems like creating a mess for no good reason.

[wraper]

As ceramic was mentioned, I suspect there was a problem with cleaning porous surface due to wiping being ineffective to clean crevices. A toothbrush with fine sharpened bristles can help a lot in cases like that.

[jpanhalt]

Somewhere in post #3's collection of words are silicone (not silicon) and adhesives.

I know of no general solvent for all adhesives.  The differences are too great.  Compare ceramic adhesives to the water soluble adhesive used on mailing envelopes.  Solvent-based adhesives are usually removed by a similar solvent.  Any reactive adhesive (e.g., polyurethane, cyanoacrylate (CA), silicone) are much more difficult and one usually has to resort to mechanical cleaning.  Solvent mixtures for CA also work.

As for silicone grease and rubber/caulking, they are very difficult to remove.  Ask anyone who refinishes cars.  GE is on record as saying there is no effective solvent.   Residual silicone grease can be cleaned to an extent with various solvents.  As for the rubber, one needs to use physical methods; although, a reactive paste is made that chemically chars them with a sulfonic acid.

[David Hess]

The best thing I have found for cleaning thermal grease residue is acetone.  Toluene, MEK, and xylene probably work well but are more expensive and less available.