westfw:
Well, the "Gel" stuff isn't Sodium Hydroxide, and many of the "crystal" versions have Aluminum added for "bubbling action", and you don't want that either (nor do you want to be picking out the Aluminum grains by hand.) Lye is remarkably nasty stuff, good to avoid if you can.Also, "Oxy Clean" is not the same as Sodium Carbonate, and "sodium silicate" turns out to be really ambiguous, frequently spanning everything from waterglass to cleaners...
(Some testing may be advisable before you work too hard at getting that large, complicated, PCB exposed...)
Not the same, but "OxyClean" works as well as sodium carbonate as a developer and Drano (crystals) works as well as sodium hydroxide as a stripper (acetone works well also).
