Pro tip: I was cleaning every board with the same brush for years

I was fixing a vintage radio from 1978 for a friend and kept getting weird shorts after my usual clean. The issue was a tiny bit of conductive paste left on the brush from a previous job. It only took one grain of that stuff to mess up the old traces. Now I keep three separate brushes in labeled jars: one for flux, one for grease, and one just for dust. It seems so obvious now, but it never clicked until that radio. What's your system for keeping cleaning tools from cross contaminating a repair?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_diana1mo ago

That sounds like overkill for most hobbyist work.

emma_flores1mo ago

Disagree. One mistake and you're shopping for parts.

emma_flores1mo ago

My 1992 amplifier taught me the same lesson with a puff of smoke. Three brushes is just common sense, not overkill. You only call it that until your next repair fries.