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Thinning solder mask?

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First post, by Shponglefan

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Does anyone know if it's possible to thin solder mask and if so, what substance might be best for that?

I was reading about substances to thin nail polish and have seen suggestions including acetone and mineral spirits. I'm wondering if the same could be done with solder mask.

I'm especially curious to see if it could be thinned enough to apply it via airbrushing.

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486 DX4-100 with 6 sound cards
486 DX-33 with 5 sound cards

Reply 1 of 4, by paradigital

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Interesting, I’ve got some conformal coating and some cellulose thinners along with an R/C car painting airbrush. I could be tempted to try this.

Reply 2 of 4, by wierd_w

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Cheap solder mask is just epoxy with green alcohol dye in it.

As such, xylene would thin it fantastically.

It this is a fancier UV curing resin type instead, more sophisticated chemistry that is resin specific may be required.

Reply 3 of 4, by Shponglefan

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wierd_w wrote on 2024-11-26, 17:56:

It this is a fancier UV curing resin type instead, more sophisticated chemistry that is resin specific may be required.

What I have is the fancier UV curing kind.

At any rate, I might do some experiments with a few different chemicals to see what works and what doesn't. Should be easy enough to figure out.

Pentium 4 Multi-OS Build
486 DX4-100 with 6 sound cards
486 DX-33 with 5 sound cards

Reply 4 of 4, by wierd_w

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Thin with the xylene, spray, then outgas in a vacuum pot/chamber.

Then cure?