How to Desolder clean and cheap

A lot of people ask me this and this is any easy answer.

When I used to first desolder things I used the traditional soldering iron and suction bulb, that method sucked, no pun intended.

But for around $30 you can get this.

Pretty easy to use, let it heat up and when the iron is up to temp you push the lever down on the suck contraption and then it locks. Then place it on the solder you want to suck up, WAIT FOR THE SOLDER TO BE MOLTEN, usually within 1 second or instantly then press the white button to suck up the solder. Repeat process until the chip is desoldered.

I used it for quite sometime and it works well, you would need to clean it after you desolder about ~4 or 5 chips is recommended. Use the wire spring and shove it down the tip to clear anything out and then pop off the solder collector and empty it out. You also at some point need to open the top half of the collector where the spring is and clean out the solder in there as sometimes it makes it a little more difficult to slide the level down. Doing all this prevents it from clogging up the tip. The only problem I had with it was that there is no source I can find that sells replacement tips for it and mine after 3 years finally got clogged.

Since I was doing a higher volume of desoldering I stepped it up to a station which cost me $400.

That looks pretty good for a starter unit; certainly better than one of those Radio Shack solder suckers.

I'm just starting to get into board repair, and a friend recommended this one:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...t_shr?_encoding=UTF8&m=AKJ57Q9VZBBO8&v=glance

It's a big step up, but I've heard lots of good things. Time will tell!

That one looks pretty good. Just watch out as some of them don't have a suction delay. If it doesn't have a suction delay which means it keeps sucking after you let go of the button you can easily clog the tip on it. Make sure you hold the button to clear the line.

An excellent piece of advice.

I should probably get something similar. The only desoldering tool I have for the moment is a desoldering braid. For most things I do it doesn't work well, and it seem to require a very high temperature (at least with my tips).

another good desoldering iron is the kind that you hook up to an air compressor especially if you have the compressor already. they work extremely well. I used to use one at work repairing arcade pcbs as well. Or you could always do it the extra cheap ass way to clear through holes by filling them up with solder heating it then tapping the board against your work space to knock it out. but that only works on smaller boards ussually

Just got a Hot Air Pencil, works pretty damn good for SMD shit.

Anything I should be aware of when using it? I know if you hold it in the same place too long it can burn the PCB.

Ah cool, I didn't know electrical ones existed. I've been using braid and a 6$ pump non-electrical version of that one, both work ok for certain applications but this would make it even easier to work with.

If you use a desoldering station and come across ones that you can't suck up usually it's because the solder isn't molten, sometimes you need to add solder and wait a bit longer then try it.

Xian Xi said:

Just got a Hot Air Pencil, works pretty damn good for SMD shit.

Anything I should be aware of when using it? I know if you hold it in the same place too long it can burn the PCB.

Click to expand...

Figured out that if using paste solder for SMD chips it is best to put the paste solder at the outside end of the pad where the tip of the leg would be. If you put the paste solder too far in it will get under the chip and possibly bridge any plate-throughs under the chip.

Xian Xi said:

Just got a Hot Air Pencil, works pretty damn good for SMD shit.

Anything I should be aware of when using it? I know if you hold it in the same place too long it can burn the PCB.

Click to expand...

Which one did you pick up?

It's called the HAP80 which is an attachment for my soldering station Xytronic LF-7000. Only other attachment they make for my station is a hot air tweezers.

I've been using the cheap desoldering iron from Radio Shack. Granted, I have only used it for cap kits so far, but it works well enough for a beginner.

I have the exact same desoldering pump, it was given to me new from the chief engineer at work. I found out why he didn't like them and gave me his, you can't see the trace when you apply the pump which leads to lifting traces since the thing has to be to close the joint to flow the solder. Also 70 percent of the time you have to hold a actual soldering iron in the molten solder and not the joint to flow it for a pump to work, this can not be safely achieved with the electric pump.

Basically desoldering is a art, the ideal technique involves holding the pump a little distance from the joint when you suck out the solder so you don't damage the trace.

It's cake with my Pace stations...

They are pricey though.

channelmaniac said:

It's cake with my Pace stations...

They are pricey though.

Click to expand...

Christ channelmaniac what piece of equipment don't you have, do you got a flux capacitor lying around somewhere I can buy.

Seriously do you have a BGA rework station?

In Russia the BGA reworks you.

The BGA iron & tips for the Pace units and an IR soldering head are the 2 things I don't have.

I've spent the past few years repairing boards and stocking up on chips, test equipment, test jigs, and soldering gear.

Right now I need some more .025 or .032 sized 60/40 solder and more desoldering iron tips.

Xian Xi said:

In Russia the BGA reworks you.

Click to expand...

LOL

ronald0 said:

I should probably get something similar. The only desoldering tool I have for the moment is a desoldering braid. For most things I do it doesn't work well, and it seem to require a very high temperature (at least with my tips).

Click to expand...

Solder wicking ("braid") is an excellent desoldering tool. It works better than any solder sucker when you need a totally clean surface for rework. You have to understand a few things about it though.

The solder braid works as a heat sink. For this reason, you'll need a larger solder tip to heat it up. You also want to increase the soldering iron temperature by about 50 degrees Fahrenheit when using it. Also, it comes in several sizes. For smaller jobs, like cleaning off a JAMMA pin, you want to use very small braid. You don't need to wick away a lot of solder and the smaller braid reduces the heat sink effect. A good trick for working with smaller braid is to lace it between the iron and work surface, then slowly pull the strip through as the braid fills up with solder.

If you don't have the proper tips for the soldering iron, you could cut off a small strip of the braid, place it on the area, and once it heats up and wicks just pull it off with a pair of tweezers. This stops the heat sink effect that runs up the whole braid.

The only thing I really NEED a solder sucker for is thru-hole component replacement, like a resistor. And that is only to narrow the heat application so I don't heat the circuit card, causing crazing (the checker board pattern that appears around burns) and delamination of the card layers.

Here is a picture of my at home soldering station. I still have a few things I would like, like an ESD mat and a fume extractor but it's more than adequate for my arcade project.




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