[Coco] How do you clean oxidized IC legs?

[Gene Heskett]

On Saturday 18 April 2009, Christian Lesage wrote:
>I've been restoring a few classic computers lately, and I found that
>some ICs (especially TI and MOSTEK ones) had their legs so much oxidized
>that they turned black. What is the best way to clean those legs?
>
A silverware cleaning solution sold under the brand name of 'Tarnex".  A 5 
minute soak, with lots of agitation, followed by a good rinse off in hot 
running water, drop them on a terry towel and finish drying with a hair dryer.  
If 5 minutes isn't enough (and I had a piece of gear that spent its first 10 
years in a NYC tv production house, it took 3 sessions with some of them to 
turn the legs white again)

In extreme cases, you might have to pour some into the sockets, but with the 
cleanup being so difficult, its really got to be bad before I'll resort to 
that.

Do not reuse the solution more than twice, and never pour it back in the 
bottle once its been used.  I used an old china coffee cup which held about 20 
14 and 16 pin chips at a time.  Even then, cleaning several hundred of them 
got old fast.  The 2nd batch of chips in that coffee cup of Tarnex, never did 
come really clean, but I apparently wasn't getting the message. :(

>Thanks,
>
>Christian
>
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-- 
Cheers, Gene
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