[sdiy] Re: [AH] Surface mount repairs (was A6 voice problem)

[phillip m gallo]

I was quite impressed with a de-soldiering station where you put the board
in a frame, where it is benignly heated with hot air. You  then place
catalyst on the soldered pins and direct hot air to the pins in question.
The chips just slide off, the traces are intact and major heating is
directed only to the chip area  in question.  The excess solder "globs" and
is easily removed.

The  micro's (i80251's) i had removed in the demonstration of this
workstation (small desktop model) were still functional, as the catalyst
allows the heat requirement to be reduced compare to point source iron
heating.   The cost in 1997 was $15K.   I know of two radio repair shops
which bought them and use them to good effect.

regards,
p



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kevin Lightner" <synthfool at synthfool.com>
To: "Analogue Heaven" <analogue at hyperreal.org>
Sent: Friday, August 29, 2003 3:04 PM
Subject: Re: [AH] Surface mount repairs (was A6 voice problem)


> >>This reminds me to ask a question:
> >>
> >>If you have the sporadic need to replace a surface mount component,
> >>what do you do?  Usually I subscribe to the 'right tool for the right
job'
> >>theory, but in this case, I'd rather not tool up to do surfacemount
> >>repairs for something that comes up maybe twice or three times a year.
> >>
> >>thanks
>
>
> Btw, the reason I don't use one of those squarish desoldering dies
> that desolder the whole IC at once is that there's several different
> sizes to ICs. Buying all of the different tips for an operation I do
> maybe 3 times a year is kind of silly when these other tools are
> always at my fingertips. Even *finding* those tips and then replacing
> it on a soldering iron already hot (usually) is more of a time waste.
> I'm a tool whore, but so far I haven't found the need to buy any of
> these tips. For a person replacing one IC, who already knows the IC
> size, it might be worth the expense.
>
> PS: Just a nice friendly message to all of the techs out there
> actively doing tech work, I'd *very much* recommend buying a power
> desolderer for yourselve(s). It makes life a lot more easy in the
> repair world.
> I have two and they're not cheap ($500-600 each), but I rate them up
> with scopes and meters in usefulness.You can cleanly desolder a 40
> pin cpu in about a minute. 14 and 16 pin ICs can get removed in about
> 20-30 seconds. Unless the pins were bent beforehand, the chip will
> often fall completely out of the board by itself! Jobs like "let's
> eliminate every IC socket on this board" become very easy to tackle.
>   I use Hakko and a Solder Aid units. The Hakko warms up almost
> immediately and does the best job.
>
>
> -- 
> Regards,
> Kevin Lightner
>
> http://www.synthfool.com


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