[sdiy] solder wick?

[The Peasant]

I've spent lots of time with all of these types of 
desoldering equipment, and I think that each can be 
effective for it's own certain types of work or situation. 
Lots of practice is essential to get reasonably good at any 
of them, at least it was for me. And you have to be careful 
with EVERY method, or you can damage the board traces.

Solder wick can be handy at times, particularly large braid 
stuff with a hot iron for sucking up a lot of solder 
without making much mess. Even though I always have some 
available, I *rarely* use it, which tells you how it stacks 
up with the other methods available around here.

The little rubber bulbs and bulbs attached to irons work 
OK, but they probably are the most difficult to get 
proficient with. They can dump solder dust on your circuit 
especially when not kept fairly empty and clean inside. My 
little red rubber bulb never leaves it's drawer either.

Spring type desoldering pumps (solder suckers) have to be 
kept clean to work well, they can drop solder dust, and 
they do get fatiguing if you are doing a lot of work. 
However, they do work well for all but the most demanding 
solder jobs (like multilayer boards) and are portable and 
relatively easy to keep clean.

Electric pump type desolder tools are my personal favorite, 
most effective and easiest to use. They cost more but are 
well worth it, drawing the solder through the actual 
heating element is much more efficient than an external 
sucking tip. I converted a large old iron with the rubber 
bulb system on it to an electric system with a solenoid 
valve, regulator, and a large vacuum pump, this thing will 
suck the traces right off of pcbs if you want. I also have 
an Ungar 4624 station with the standard desoldering handle, 
and I use a Pace system at work, I've also used OK brand, 
and they've all worked very well. But these tools *only* 
work well if they are kept CLEAN, if you let them go they 
completely plug up with an amalgam of flux and metals. It's 
a bit more work to keep this type of unit clean, but it's 
performance makes it worth it for me. This is really the 
ONLY solution for multilayer work.

anyhoo, just MHO, YMMV :-)=

Take care,
Doug
______________________
The Electronic Peasant

www.electronicpeasant.com