In keeping with the holiday themes for EYE on NPI, this week (video), we’ve picked up some MicroCare TidyPen 2’s – great for removing sticky residue on PCBs from protective tapes or adhesives, or even price-tags from gifts!
These are great for rework desks, crafting, or prototyping when you have a sticker you’ve removed and it left some gunk on the PCB. They work a lot better than isopropyl alcohol (that just seems to smear the glue around) and comes in a handy little pen.
Since we use no-clean flux solder, sometimes we have some flux deposits left over after through hole soldering. This works pretty well there as well. If you really just want a flux remover pen, and not for general adhesives, there’s a special product they make just for that.
We especially like the solid felted nib. You can press it down to get some more fluid into the tip, and it’s firm enough to act like a little scrubber brush. After wetting the area and giving it a little scrub, I use a dry tissue to wipe it clean. You can also order more nibs if they get kinda dirty or smooshed, although I think you could probably cut the nib with diagonal cutters to get a fresh tip. It’s kind of magical, we had way too much fun cleaning off sticky tools like our scissors which had a bit of goo left over from cutting some tape.
Applications:
Dissolves and lifts away labels, glues and adhesives of all kinds
Great on almost any sticky residue
Zips away adhesives, tape residue and pressure sensitive marking tags
Works on paper labels, stickers, EPROM labels, Kapton® tape residue, barcode labels, chewing gum, tar and price tags
Removes corrosion from the gold fingers of PCBs
Compliant in all 50 US States
The TidyPen 2 is available right now at Digi-Key in single pieces and multipacks, toss it into your cart and next time you get your order in, you’ll thank yourself for the gift.
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