[sdiy] Desolder Station?

[patchell]

    This depends...are you attempting to replace parts or salvage parts?

    To replace parts, I clip it out of the circuit with wire cutters, if at all posible (this is generally the case with IC's, resistors, most capacitors, etc).  I
then heat the pads up one at a time and remove the rest of the leads one at a time.  Then I just use a cheap desolder pump (basically a spring loaded plunger in a
tube), and suck the solder out of each hole.  This is inexpensive and does a minimum amount of damage to the board.  If I am replacing an IC, many times, if
posisble, I replace it with a socket so I won't have to go through this exersize again, unless I know why the chip went bad.

    Now, to salvage parts, the above won't work.  The best setup I ever saw was my freind had this setup with an x-y table you put the board on.  Below was a small
solder pot, about 1 inch in diameter, that contained molten solder.  The solder pot could be raised and lowered.  He would position the part to be removed over the
solder pot, raise the solder, and quicky pull the part out with a pair of pliers.  This would do almost no damage to either board or part.  Very slick.  He got his
surplus.  I imagine a machine like this would not be cheap.
    You can also get pnumatic desolder pumps, that look like a soldering iron, but the tip has a hole in it that will suck the solder using an electric pump.  These
work ok, but, you have to service them a lot to keep them in top working form, and they are not cheap.  Sometimes it is still difficult to get parts that have lots
of legs off the board.
    You can also get hot air reflow guns that will bath the part in hot air, and melt the solder.  I have never used a setup like this myself.  I would thing it
would be difficult to get the solder melted and then have enough time to put the part out before the solder froze again.

"J.D.McEachin" wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> I need to buy one, I have a lot of desoldering to do (I'm tired of dicking around w/ wick, and yes I know the fresh tick of solder trick).  Any recommendations?
>
> Thanks!
> JDM

--
 -Jim
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