I needed to remove some SMD ICs from a board that had a design flaw. My current reflow setup is not quite hot enough to make removing ICs an easy task, and I didn't want to put a lot of heat into the ICs in any case. So I machined a new tip for my soldering iron: http://home.earthlink.net/~a_wake/SMD_soldering_iron_1.jpg http://home.earthlink.net/~a_wake/SMD_soldering_iron_2.jpg I sized it just to span across the body of the ICs, so that I could heat all leads simultaneously. It worked like a charm -- hold it in place for a few seconds, give a slight twist, and voila! Question: have I just reinvented the wheel? Surely something like this is readily and commercially available? I didn't bother to look for anything like this, since I had a machine shop and a solid copper rod on hand that I could turn into the tool in 30 minutes or so -- rather than having to wait days for a catalog order to show up!
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SMD soldering tool - reinventing the wheel??
2011-04-08 by Andrew