Hamad bin Turki Salami
wrote in
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I have a board that I need to add a diode to. The problem is
that the diode is coming off another board that I've
cannibalized for parts, and I don't know how to get the diode
off that board. I know very little about this stuff. I've
removed components before using an ordinary soldering iron and a
solder pump. However, this diode is tiny and surface mounted,
which seems to make things a bit harder. I tried applying a
soldering iron to the leads while poking at the diode with a
metal probe. Eventually, I cracked the diode this way.
Fortunately, the board has a few more identical diodes, so I
have another few shots at this.

Is there a trick to it?

Have to use rosin flux. Get rid of the soldering pencil and get a
temp controlled weller like soldering station, $40.00. Set at 725F.
Get the right size solder wick that is 1/8" wide. Don't use wick
that is 1/4" wide, that's too big. The solder hand pump should work
but most of the time the solder pump tip is too big ans sometimes
you suck up the SMD part into the handheld solder pump, nozzle hole
is too big. The main key is you have to use rosin flux. Clean off
flux with denatured alcohol. The standard tool to use is a hot air
desoldering station.