removing silicone from boards?

[marko]

anyone know the best way to remove silicone from circuit boards with minimal damage? someone thought it would be a good idea to stick these ugly rail caps down with silicone and try to ruin a good saught after amp

[Eric D]

I slice silicone off boards with a square tip X-acto blade (mounted in an X-acto handle).

This will remove some of the blue coating though, which you probably are not interested in doing. If you flip the blade so the bevel is down, you can use it in such a way to leave a very thin layer behind, thus not harming the blue coating. Paper thin silicone left behind will not hurt anything, or even be all that noticeable.

[finbar]

I have had mixed results using an artist's eraser, no grit in the compound, to remove silicone smear from finishes. Sometimes it works sometimes not.

[marko]

tried the blade method earlier and got most of it off, looks a lot better! maybe a bit of electrical cleaner and some rubbbing may loosen the rest, looks like someone tried removing a bit with a screwdriver

[kg1961]

in hardwood we use a product called goof off. it doesn't damage the finish not sure how it would do on the board...

[shaheen]

have you tried petrol

[ttocs]

have you tried petrol

and a match?

[marko]

havn't got any petrol lying around, got some thinners i might try (on my scrap board 1st )

[Jacampb2]

You could try DAP's "caulk be gone", it is supposed to soften and make it more removable.

*edit* I just read the MSDS, and Caulk be gone is evidently for latex products only and has some really bad actors from a chemical standpoint, DAP has "silicone be gone" as well, which is apparently sulpheric acid, Kerosene, and silica gel. It might work, but I would be worried about the acid content and the board...

Good Luck,
Jason

[paintguy]

Have you tried mechanical removal, rather than trying to dissolve it?

I tend to find silicon removes rather easily by rubbing over it with my thumb, but then it'll be a long time since you had painters thumbs

Something like the eraser mentioned above, or a bit of clay bar, blue tack, something like that.

[Pillow]

Acetone?

[Jacampb2]

solvents, like acetone, toluene, methyl isobutly ketone, etc... won't touch cured silicone adhesives/caulk. You can try it, but it is pretty much impervious to most chemicals...

[The Golden One]

solvents, like acetone, toluene, methyl isobutly ketone, etc... won't touch cured silicone adhesives/caulk. You can try it, but it is pretty much impervious to most chemicals...

i agree with this^^^^^you may could use a plastic puddy knife and some light oil like 3in1 oil and then drip the oil on the edge of the silicone and then wiggly the puddy knife gently side to side to gradually remove the silicone.

[marko]

think paintguy has the best solution so far, i have done this myself before, bit of a PITA but works, just wondered if there was anything out there that actually works!