Electronics > Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff
MEK to Remove Solder Mask from PCB
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AJ3G:
All:

I have some 1.5” Square Boards PCB’s which I want to strip all the solder mask off.  I have heard MEK can do this, but how well is unknown. Has anyone tried using this solvent for stripping solder makes. If the results were horrid, I would like to know. 

Rich
graybeard:
MEK attacks almost anything organic.  I would worry about it attacking the binder in the PCB. 
I have used it to clean deposits in antique motorcycle engines, but never on a PCB.
magic:
It may or may not. FR4 is some sort of epoxy resin and usually quite chemically resistant.
I came across papers about dissolving waste PCBs the other day. They used aggressive organic solvents like DMF and NMP at elevated temperatures to do the job.
mikeselectricstuff:
I think anything that will dissolve resist will also dissolve the resin in the substrate, though a lot more slowly due to the increased thickness, so may be viable if it's a 1-off job for reverse-engineering etc.
A PCB left for a couple of weeks in methylene chloride/dichloromethane will end up as a pile of copper and glassfibre matting. 
magic:
Did you try this exact experiment or are you extrapolating from something else?

I have never done that, but I have tried soaking ICs in DCM for a week to dissolve them and it did nothing. Those epoxies used in electronics are very resistant. Unlike some others, which fall even to acetic acid.
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