On Jul 2, 1:38*pm, "N_Cook" wrote:
Engineer wrote in message

...
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.

--
Diverse Devices, Southampton, England
electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list

onhttp://home.graffiti.net/diverse:graffiti.net/

On vintage gear I use a spring loaded solder sucker plus a sharp
aluminum (aluminium) probe (like the OP's needle probe - solder won't
stick to it.) *Usefully, one end has a 1 mm slot about 3 mm deep with
sharp points on each side. *This allows a controlled rotational
leverage to unhook those "mechanically anchored" wires that are such a
pain to get off.
As other posters have said, the addition of a little new solder can
give a better heat transfer from the "iron" and assist flow in the old
joint.
Cheers,
Roger

Aluminium ? I can't beleive that is strong enough.
Sewing needles are stainless steel which is fine with lead/tin solder but
interestingly, for diagnosis purposes, lead-free solder will adhere to
stainless steel, requiring more than just a fingernail to scrape it off,
more likely requiring pliers of some sort.

--
Diverse Devices, Southampton, England
electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list onhttp://home.graffiti.net/diverse:graffiti.net/- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

That was my first thought but it's not broken yet, and it's had a few
tough twists over the years! Perhaps it's an alloy. It came with my
old Weller solder gun over 25 years ago, both still going strong.
I only use tin/lead solder so the stainless sewing needle is a good
idea (but you don't get that "slot twist".) I'll ask my wife for one,
she's from Southsea (not far from you), so pretty resourceful!
Cheers,
Roger
(near Toronto, Canada)