Found a hack for cleaning flux off boards with cheap nail polish remover instead of IPA

I was working on a busted power supply from a client in Austin last week and ran out of isopropyl alcohol halfway through cleaning up some nasty no-clean flux. Frustrated, I grabbed my girlfriend's nail polish remover from the bathroom just to see if it would work. Turns out the acetone in it cut through the sticky residue way faster than IPA ever did. I used a Q-tip to dab it on and the flux just melted away without leaving that white chalky film. I rinsed the board with distilled water after and let it dry for an hour, then tested it and everything fired up fine. Has anyone else tried this method or found a weird substitute that beats the usual stuff?

3 comments

3 Comments

uma_martinez1mo ago

The acetone in nail polish remover is a pretty aggressive solvent compared to IPA, so it'll eat through flux fast. But you gotta be careful with certain parts on the board, like plastic connectors or some capacitor casings, because acetone can melt or damage them (I learned that the hard way on a vintage amp). You also want to make sure it's pure acetone, not the kind with added moisturizers or dyes, or you'll leave a weird film that can mess up conductivity later on. For most boards it works fine in a pinch, but I'd still stick with IPA for anything with delicate components.

ward.jamie1mo ago

Gotta call you out on one thing real quick though - pure acetone isn't actually that easy to find in nail polish removers anymore. Most drugstore stuff has glycerin or other conditioning agents even if it says 100% on the bottle. You're way better off grabbing a can from the hardware store if you wanna use it for electronics. That's where I've found the real pure stuff.

ward.jamie19d ago

Yeah but honestly another thing nobody's bringing up is that acetone evaporates so fast it can be tricky to work with on a cold day or if your board has any tight spots. @uma_martinez I've definitely had it flash off before it even fully softened the flux in some joints, especially on older boards with that crusty rosin.