Removing debris from PCB












1












$begingroup$


I have a PCB with no solder mask with a very dense layout and a very fine trace spacing.



I didn't get a solder mask because it's still in the prototyping phase, and it's way cheaper.



I keep having to stop, find the new shorts that keep popping up, and remove metal fibers that are barely visible.



From what I can tell the fibers are aluminum from the pcb so a magnet is no help.



Is there a trick to remove them faster or a way to stop this from happening?






pcb-fabrication short-circuit debugging







share|improve this question











$endgroup$








  • 1




    $begingroup$
    Aluminum? That would be rare as aluminum is pretty much only used for the heat sink layer of a metal core pcb. More likely you're learning about Tin whiskers and would benefit from reading more about them. I don't know the answer to this question the way you've phrased it other than "better tools, use solder mask"
    $endgroup$
    – K H
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    compressed air?
    $endgroup$
    – Wesley Lee
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Compressed air didn't help. Your right it is Tin... I looked at "whiskering" on wikipedia, that seems to be whats happening. Tomorrow I'll get some solder on the problem traces and see if that fixes it.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    4 hours ago












  • $begingroup$
    Who did the soldering?
    $endgroup$
    – Ale..chenski
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Yes, there is one proven way: USE MORE FLUX.
    $endgroup$
    – Ale..chenski
    4 hours ago
















1












$begingroup$


I have a PCB with no solder mask with a very dense layout and a very fine trace spacing.



I didn't get a solder mask because it's still in the prototyping phase, and it's way cheaper.



I keep having to stop, find the new shorts that keep popping up, and remove metal fibers that are barely visible.



From what I can tell the fibers are aluminum from the pcb so a magnet is no help.



Is there a trick to remove them faster or a way to stop this from happening?






pcb-fabrication short-circuit debugging







share|improve this question











$endgroup$








  • 1




    $begingroup$
    Aluminum? That would be rare as aluminum is pretty much only used for the heat sink layer of a metal core pcb. More likely you're learning about Tin whiskers and would benefit from reading more about them. I don't know the answer to this question the way you've phrased it other than "better tools, use solder mask"
    $endgroup$
    – K H
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    compressed air?
    $endgroup$
    – Wesley Lee
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Compressed air didn't help. Your right it is Tin... I looked at "whiskering" on wikipedia, that seems to be whats happening. Tomorrow I'll get some solder on the problem traces and see if that fixes it.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    4 hours ago












  • $begingroup$
    Who did the soldering?
    $endgroup$
    – Ale..chenski
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Yes, there is one proven way: USE MORE FLUX.
    $endgroup$
    – Ale..chenski
    4 hours ago














1












1








1





$begingroup$


I have a PCB with no solder mask with a very dense layout and a very fine trace spacing.



I didn't get a solder mask because it's still in the prototyping phase, and it's way cheaper.



I keep having to stop, find the new shorts that keep popping up, and remove metal fibers that are barely visible.



From what I can tell the fibers are aluminum from the pcb so a magnet is no help.



Is there a trick to remove them faster or a way to stop this from happening?






pcb-fabrication short-circuit debugging







share|improve this question











$endgroup$




I have a PCB with no solder mask with a very dense layout and a very fine trace spacing.



I didn't get a solder mask because it's still in the prototyping phase, and it's way cheaper.



I keep having to stop, find the new shorts that keep popping up, and remove metal fibers that are barely visible.



From what I can tell the fibers are aluminum from the pcb so a magnet is no help.



Is there a trick to remove them faster or a way to stop this from happening?






pcb-fabrication short-circuit debugging




pcb-fabrication short-circuit debugging






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited 4 hours ago









Michael Karas

44.4k348103




44.4k348103










asked 5 hours ago









TonyTony

30519




30519








  • 1




    $begingroup$
    Aluminum? That would be rare as aluminum is pretty much only used for the heat sink layer of a metal core pcb. More likely you're learning about Tin whiskers and would benefit from reading more about them. I don't know the answer to this question the way you've phrased it other than "better tools, use solder mask"
    $endgroup$
    – K H
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    compressed air?
    $endgroup$
    – Wesley Lee
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Compressed air didn't help. Your right it is Tin... I looked at "whiskering" on wikipedia, that seems to be whats happening. Tomorrow I'll get some solder on the problem traces and see if that fixes it.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    4 hours ago












  • $begingroup$
    Who did the soldering?
    $endgroup$
    – Ale..chenski
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Yes, there is one proven way: USE MORE FLUX.
    $endgroup$
    – Ale..chenski
    4 hours ago














  • 1




    $begingroup$
    Aluminum? That would be rare as aluminum is pretty much only used for the heat sink layer of a metal core pcb. More likely you're learning about Tin whiskers and would benefit from reading more about them. I don't know the answer to this question the way you've phrased it other than "better tools, use solder mask"
    $endgroup$
    – K H
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    compressed air?
    $endgroup$
    – Wesley Lee
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Compressed air didn't help. Your right it is Tin... I looked at "whiskering" on wikipedia, that seems to be whats happening. Tomorrow I'll get some solder on the problem traces and see if that fixes it.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    4 hours ago












  • $begingroup$
    Who did the soldering?
    $endgroup$
    – Ale..chenski
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Yes, there is one proven way: USE MORE FLUX.
    $endgroup$
    – Ale..chenski
    4 hours ago








1




1




$begingroup$
Aluminum? That would be rare as aluminum is pretty much only used for the heat sink layer of a metal core pcb. More likely you're learning about Tin whiskers and would benefit from reading more about them. I don't know the answer to this question the way you've phrased it other than "better tools, use solder mask"
$endgroup$
– K H
4 hours ago




$begingroup$
Aluminum? That would be rare as aluminum is pretty much only used for the heat sink layer of a metal core pcb. More likely you're learning about Tin whiskers and would benefit from reading more about them. I don't know the answer to this question the way you've phrased it other than "better tools, use solder mask"
$endgroup$
– K H
4 hours ago












$begingroup$
compressed air?
$endgroup$
– Wesley Lee
4 hours ago




$begingroup$
compressed air?
$endgroup$
– Wesley Lee
4 hours ago












$begingroup$
Compressed air didn't help. Your right it is Tin... I looked at "whiskering" on wikipedia, that seems to be whats happening. Tomorrow I'll get some solder on the problem traces and see if that fixes it.
$endgroup$
– Tony
4 hours ago






$begingroup$
Compressed air didn't help. Your right it is Tin... I looked at "whiskering" on wikipedia, that seems to be whats happening. Tomorrow I'll get some solder on the problem traces and see if that fixes it.
$endgroup$
– Tony
4 hours ago














$begingroup$
Who did the soldering?
$endgroup$
– Ale..chenski
4 hours ago




$begingroup$
Who did the soldering?
$endgroup$
– Ale..chenski
4 hours ago












$begingroup$
Yes, there is one proven way: USE MORE FLUX.
$endgroup$
– Ale..chenski
4 hours ago




$begingroup$
Yes, there is one proven way: USE MORE FLUX.
$endgroup$
– Ale..chenski
4 hours ago










1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes


















3












$begingroup$

The trick to stop this from happening is to order your PCB with solder mask. Do consider the cost of your time when deciding that it is cheaper to order boards without.






share|improve this answer









$endgroup$













  • $begingroup$
    I got this board w/ 1 day turn around time with overnight shipping for $250 vs paying over $2000 and 5 day turn around when including a solder mask for a design that hasn't been proven.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    You might also want to consider using leaded solder, as lead inhibits the formation of whiskers, if that is your problem. As long as you dispose of it properly, there's nothing wrong with using lead in your prototypes, just try to keep it out of any final products.
    $endgroup$
    – Hearth
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Yep, that's all we use. All of our designs are just for internal use.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    4 hours ago












  • $begingroup$
    Did you end up using more or less than $1750 worth of your time finding and fixing shorts, though?
    $endgroup$
    – The Photon
    2 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    And if you add a couple of days looking for the shorts (or if they show up as glitches in the future), that 2000$ price tag falls drastically for 48hr and 72hr fabrication.
    $endgroup$
    – Wesley Lee
    1 hour ago











Your Answer





StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function () {
return StackExchange.using("mathjaxEditing", function () {
StackExchange.MarkdownEditor.creationCallbacks.add(function (editor, postfix) {
StackExchange.mathjaxEditing.prepareWmdForMathJax(editor, postfix, [["\$", "\$"]]);
});
});
}, "mathjax-editing");

StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function () {
return StackExchange.using("schematics", function () {
StackExchange.schematics.init();
});
}, "cicuitlab");

StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "135"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});

function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});


}
});














draft saved

draft discarded


















StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2felectronics.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f425459%2fremoving-debris-from-pcb%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);

Post as a guest















Required, but never shown

























1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes








1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes









3












$begingroup$

The trick to stop this from happening is to order your PCB with solder mask. Do consider the cost of your time when deciding that it is cheaper to order boards without.






share|improve this answer









$endgroup$













  • $begingroup$
    I got this board w/ 1 day turn around time with overnight shipping for $250 vs paying over $2000 and 5 day turn around when including a solder mask for a design that hasn't been proven.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    You might also want to consider using leaded solder, as lead inhibits the formation of whiskers, if that is your problem. As long as you dispose of it properly, there's nothing wrong with using lead in your prototypes, just try to keep it out of any final products.
    $endgroup$
    – Hearth
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Yep, that's all we use. All of our designs are just for internal use.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    4 hours ago












  • $begingroup$
    Did you end up using more or less than $1750 worth of your time finding and fixing shorts, though?
    $endgroup$
    – The Photon
    2 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    And if you add a couple of days looking for the shorts (or if they show up as glitches in the future), that 2000$ price tag falls drastically for 48hr and 72hr fabrication.
    $endgroup$
    – Wesley Lee
    1 hour ago
















3












$begingroup$

The trick to stop this from happening is to order your PCB with solder mask. Do consider the cost of your time when deciding that it is cheaper to order boards without.






share|improve this answer









$endgroup$













  • $begingroup$
    I got this board w/ 1 day turn around time with overnight shipping for $250 vs paying over $2000 and 5 day turn around when including a solder mask for a design that hasn't been proven.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    You might also want to consider using leaded solder, as lead inhibits the formation of whiskers, if that is your problem. As long as you dispose of it properly, there's nothing wrong with using lead in your prototypes, just try to keep it out of any final products.
    $endgroup$
    – Hearth
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Yep, that's all we use. All of our designs are just for internal use.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    4 hours ago












  • $begingroup$
    Did you end up using more or less than $1750 worth of your time finding and fixing shorts, though?
    $endgroup$
    – The Photon
    2 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    And if you add a couple of days looking for the shorts (or if they show up as glitches in the future), that 2000$ price tag falls drastically for 48hr and 72hr fabrication.
    $endgroup$
    – Wesley Lee
    1 hour ago














3












3








3





$begingroup$

The trick to stop this from happening is to order your PCB with solder mask. Do consider the cost of your time when deciding that it is cheaper to order boards without.






share|improve this answer









$endgroup$



The trick to stop this from happening is to order your PCB with solder mask. Do consider the cost of your time when deciding that it is cheaper to order boards without.







share|improve this answer












share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer










answered 4 hours ago









Michael KarasMichael Karas

44.4k348103




44.4k348103












  • $begingroup$
    I got this board w/ 1 day turn around time with overnight shipping for $250 vs paying over $2000 and 5 day turn around when including a solder mask for a design that hasn't been proven.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    You might also want to consider using leaded solder, as lead inhibits the formation of whiskers, if that is your problem. As long as you dispose of it properly, there's nothing wrong with using lead in your prototypes, just try to keep it out of any final products.
    $endgroup$
    – Hearth
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Yep, that's all we use. All of our designs are just for internal use.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    4 hours ago












  • $begingroup$
    Did you end up using more or less than $1750 worth of your time finding and fixing shorts, though?
    $endgroup$
    – The Photon
    2 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    And if you add a couple of days looking for the shorts (or if they show up as glitches in the future), that 2000$ price tag falls drastically for 48hr and 72hr fabrication.
    $endgroup$
    – Wesley Lee
    1 hour ago


















  • $begingroup$
    I got this board w/ 1 day turn around time with overnight shipping for $250 vs paying over $2000 and 5 day turn around when including a solder mask for a design that hasn't been proven.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    You might also want to consider using leaded solder, as lead inhibits the formation of whiskers, if that is your problem. As long as you dispose of it properly, there's nothing wrong with using lead in your prototypes, just try to keep it out of any final products.
    $endgroup$
    – Hearth
    4 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Yep, that's all we use. All of our designs are just for internal use.
    $endgroup$
    – Tony
    4 hours ago












  • $begingroup$
    Did you end up using more or less than $1750 worth of your time finding and fixing shorts, though?
    $endgroup$
    – The Photon
    2 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    And if you add a couple of days looking for the shorts (or if they show up as glitches in the future), that 2000$ price tag falls drastically for 48hr and 72hr fabrication.
    $endgroup$
    – Wesley Lee
    1 hour ago
















$begingroup$
I got this board w/ 1 day turn around time with overnight shipping for $250 vs paying over $2000 and 5 day turn around when including a solder mask for a design that hasn't been proven.
$endgroup$
– Tony
4 hours ago




$begingroup$
I got this board w/ 1 day turn around time with overnight shipping for $250 vs paying over $2000 and 5 day turn around when including a solder mask for a design that hasn't been proven.
$endgroup$
– Tony
4 hours ago












$begingroup$
You might also want to consider using leaded solder, as lead inhibits the formation of whiskers, if that is your problem. As long as you dispose of it properly, there's nothing wrong with using lead in your prototypes, just try to keep it out of any final products.
$endgroup$
– Hearth
4 hours ago




$begingroup$
You might also want to consider using leaded solder, as lead inhibits the formation of whiskers, if that is your problem. As long as you dispose of it properly, there's nothing wrong with using lead in your prototypes, just try to keep it out of any final products.
$endgroup$
– Hearth
4 hours ago












$begingroup$
Yep, that's all we use. All of our designs are just for internal use.
$endgroup$
– Tony
4 hours ago






$begingroup$
Yep, that's all we use. All of our designs are just for internal use.
$endgroup$
– Tony
4 hours ago














$begingroup$
Did you end up using more or less than $1750 worth of your time finding and fixing shorts, though?
$endgroup$
– The Photon
2 hours ago




$begingroup$
Did you end up using more or less than $1750 worth of your time finding and fixing shorts, though?
$endgroup$
– The Photon
2 hours ago












$begingroup$
And if you add a couple of days looking for the shorts (or if they show up as glitches in the future), that 2000$ price tag falls drastically for 48hr and 72hr fabrication.
$endgroup$
– Wesley Lee
1 hour ago




$begingroup$
And if you add a couple of days looking for the shorts (or if they show up as glitches in the future), that 2000$ price tag falls drastically for 48hr and 72hr fabrication.
$endgroup$
– Wesley Lee
1 hour ago


















draft saved

draft discarded




















































Thanks for contributing an answer to Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange!


  • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

But avoid …



  • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

  • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


Use MathJax to format equations. MathJax reference.


To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




draft saved


draft discarded














StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2felectronics.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f425459%2fremoving-debris-from-pcb%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);

Post as a guest















Required, but never shown





















































Required, but never shown














Required, but never shown












Required, but never shown







Required, but never shown

































Required, but never shown














Required, but never shown












Required, but never shown







Required, but never shown







-

Popular posts from this blog

Costa Masnaga

Image
.mw-parser-output .avviso .mbox-text-div>div,.mw-parser-output .avviso .mbox-text-full-div>div{font-size:90%}.mw-parser-output .avviso .mbox-image div{width:52px}.mw-parser-output .avviso .mbox-text-full-div .hide-when-compact{display:block} Questa voce o sezione sull'argomento Lombardia non cita le fonti necessarie o quelle presenti sono insufficienti . Puoi migliorare questa voce aggiungendo citazioni da fonti attendibili secondo le linee guida sull'uso delle fonti. Segui i suggerimenti del progetto di riferimento. Costa Masnaga comune Localizzazione Stato   Italia Regione Lombardia Provincia Lecco Amministrazione Sindaco Sabina Panzeri (Al centro il cittadino) dall'08/06/2009 Territorio Coordinate 45°46′N 9°17′E  /  45.766667°N 9.283333°E 45.766667; 9.283333  ( Costa Masnaga ) Coordinate: 45°46′N 9°17′E  /  45.766667°N 9.283333°E 45.766667; 9.283333  ( Costa Masnaga ) Altitudine 318 m s.l.m...
Read more

Fotorealismo

Image
Guerrino Boatto, Venice's St. Barnaba Church and canal Il fotorealismo è un genere di pittura basato sull'uso di una o più fotografie dalle quali l'artista prende le informazioni necessarie da utilizzare poi nel processo della creazione dell'opera, in genere ad olio o ad acrilico, al fine di avere un aspetto finale il più simile possibile alla fotografia. Indice 1 Storia 2 Lista dei fotorealisti 3 Note 4 Voci correlate 5 Altri progetti Storia | Il fotorealismo è un movimento che nasce negli Stati Uniti d'America alla fine degli anni sessanta [1] sulla scia della Pop Art [2] [3] [4] , e insieme condividono il carattere reazionario verso la travolgente ascesa dei media, che alla metà del ventesimo secolo si trasforma in un fenomeno di massa talmente imponente da minacciare il valore dell'immagine nell'arte. [5] [6] Ne consegue così che, colto il gesto d'inizio che fu della Pop Art, i fotorealisti aprono ad un ...
Read more

Sidney Franklin

Image
Questa voce sull'argomento registi statunitensi è solo un abbozzo . Contribuisci a migliorarla secondo le convenzioni di Wikipedia. Sidney Franklin, foto di Carl Van Vechten Oscar alla memoria Irving G. Thalberg 1943 Sidney Franklin , all'anagrafe Sidney Arnold Franklin , (San Francisco, 21 marzo 1893 – Santa Monica, 18 maggio 1972), è stato un regista, produttore cinematografico e attore statunitense. Il 20 giugno 1963, si sposò con l'attrice australiana Enid Bennett. Il matrimonio durò fino alla morte dell'attrice, il 14 maggio 1969 [1] Indice 1 Filmografia 1.1 Regista 1.2 Aiuto regia (parziale) 1.3 Produttore 1.4 Attore (parziale) 2 Note 3 Altri progetti 4 Collegamenti esterni Filmografia | Regista | The Baby , co-regia Chester M. Franklin (1915) The Rivals , co-regia Chester M. Franklin (1915) Little Dick's First Case , co-regia Chester M. Franklin (1915) Her Filmland Hero , co-...
Read more