[AH] Trim-pot debacle (ADVICE PLEASE!)

[aschrock]

On Wed, 3 Feb 1999, Brett Duggan wrote:
> In my experience, any relatively cheap component that has more than 2
> solder connections to a PCB should be sacrificed (i.e. destroyed) so that
> you have access to both sides of the PCB. 

True.. altho personally I would at least TRY to suck it out with a piece
of wick. For a lot of components this is very easy if they have thin legs,
such as sockets. 

> For example, let's say I need to replace a cheap 28-pin IC socket with a
> higher quality one.  I destroy the cheap socket by cutting into pieces
> with wire cutters (or a small saw, you get the picture), so that each
> piece only has one PCB solder connection.  Then I grab the piece on the
> top side of the PCB with a pair a pliers while I heat the solder 
> connection on the trace side of the PCB with the iron.  The piece slides 

Not that I'm an expert, but it really isn't a good idea to use a saw.
Vibrations on the PCB might jostle other components loose, as well as nick
the PCB itself! If you're careful I suppose it's ok, but a good pair of
diagonal cutters should be good. 

Andrew