On Jul 2, 9:28*am, "N_Cook" wrote:
I find desolder braid or vacuum suckers only work well enough on flat pcb
pads not bulbous solder and wire/s around tags of older stuff.

Anyone have improvements or alternatives to the technique I use.
Firstly assuming that the component lead length is not enough to cut and
re-use further along the wire. So definitely a matter of desoldering and
re-using *what is there, maybe more than one wire , all quite properly,
looped through the tag before the original soldering.

The first thing I do is fix some small (ratchet clamping) medical artery
forceps / angler's hook remover tool/s on the exposed bit of the metal of
the wire/s up close to the tag to act as heatsinks to avoid melting the
sleeving , due to prolonged solder-iron heating of the tag. Then with what I
call a needle-probe, a large sewing needle, set into wooden dowel handle, I
explore while melting the solder blob and unhook the "free" end of the
wire/s and then pull through using the forceps.

I use a solder-sucker. It gets down into the blob and pretty much gets
all of it. If the solder is stubborn and does not stay liquid enough,
I will 'refresh' it with a bit of new solder first.

Such tools may be had at any electronics shop, either as rubber-bulb
devices, cheap and easy, or as a spring-loaded device that is a bit
more expensive and awkward to use but can be much more efficient.

There are specialized de-soldering irons with such devices pre-
mounted.

There are also fancy vacuum-aided devices for which I have never (yet)
had the need, but I hear-tell they are super at what they do.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA