Electronics cleaner

This is probably more an off topic question but I figured I would ask here since it's electronic board related. 
I'm looking for advice on cleaning a control board that has chips and grinding dust contaminants on it. I'm reluctant of using a spray contact cleaner as I'm concerned of driving the contaminants under IC chips and components, possibly bridging exposed pins. I also don't want to build up static with mechanical scrubbing as with q tip etc. What is a good safe method and product to use?

If its a relatively recent board, I would just wash in warm water with a little detergent
and a soft brush to loosen the debris and then rinse until all detergent is removed.
Finally air dry in a oven at about 65 C for a couple of hours. I would not worry about
debris shorting under components unless that card has fine pitch BGAs

Note that there  are a couple of components that don't like this treatment:
Membrane keypads and "sealed" relays as these are very difficult to dry.

I would pour drugstore isopropyl alcohol on it, scrub lightly with a soft toothbrush, and then rinse thoroughly with running water. Shake off or blow dry with an air hose, then allow the board to dry for several hours propped up on edge.
This has always worked for me.
Jon

Interesting, I may try that. The board rev looks like 2004 or newer. I also have a power supply and drive that needs cleaning. Any concerns about water/detergent on transformer type components? Any thoughts on using isopropyl or the off the shelf electronics spray cleaners (like CRC cd)? I would assume isopropyl would benefit from post heating/drying as well? I did not notice any BGAs and I'll have to check on the mechanical relays. 

Yes, relays, manual switches and transformers may be issues with liquid entry, and with relays and switches liquids can carry contaminants into the contacts. So, you want to avoid getting solvents into those parts unless you can verify they are sealed. Transformers are less of an issue, but may take longer to dry out fully.
jon

Greetings,

There are several flavors of Isopropyl Alcohol.

70%, 91%, and 99%.

I buy the 99% as it, hopefully, only has water as the remaining 1%,

The 70%, I am told, contains oils to condition the human skin,

Not sure applying alcohol with oil is good for cleaning boards.

I used to machine specimen holders for electron microscopes. We used to clean parts with pure Ethanol. We had a permit to buy it at the Liquor Control Store.

Cheers,

Dave

I used this mix when repairing PCB's, a 50/50 mix of ethanol and 99% Isopropyl alcohol.