Hi Tom, hi everybody
concerning cleaning a board with fluids:
Vinegar is a fluid, which is an acid. Not a very corrossive acid like
sulfur-acid or similar acids, but in fact it's an acid!
Boards contain copper, metal components and tin (stannum) or gold-
contacts, all of those materials - except of gold - will be corroded
by any acid, fast or not so fast, that doesn't matter. So in my
opinion, it's not a good idea to clean a board with vinegar in order
to get broken or corroded contacts or connections repaired.
Instead of this, I would use an alkaline solution like soap-water or
dishwasher-soap, but never a corrosive acid. Alkaline solutions are
able to stop corrosion if there is any corrossive acid fluid on the
board and, by the way, soap-water also cleans grease, dust and dirt
on the board. No components are affected permanently in their
electrical behaviour, except of perhaps very old caps with broken
rubber cover gaskets. Of course you will have to dry the boards after
this treatment carefully. It's recommended to store the boards
vertically at a warm place for several days before activating them
again.
The only really working solution to get corroded boards work again is
to trace the connections with an ohm-meter and solder by-pass wires,
but unfortunately this is plenty of work to do.
Finally: I don't know, when or who brought up the idea to clean
corroded boards with vinegar. It could not have been a chemist, for
shure!
greetings: TOM from Bavaria, the center of Europe, the country of the
Alps, the marvellous castles of Koenig Ludwig and last but not least:
The original Octoberfest