Puckdropper puckdropper(at)yahoo(dot)com wrote in
.com:

"Mike Marlow" wrote in
:


I have no idea what that point would be, but I have shot 125+ pounds
of air at all of my computers for years with not a single problem.
If blowing components off is a possibility then you've got bigger
problems with the computer you bought than the act of using
compressed air to clean it.


I've got some old circuit boards with surface mount components...
maybe it's time for an experiment.

Hm... a little googling found a mini-heated torch. It uses compressed
air and heat to melt the solder on SMD components (and blow it away)
so the parts can be salvaged. (or maybe the board.)

Puckdropper

A quick experiment showed no movement at all with the SMD components.
Compressor was set to 90 PSI (I forgot the 125 psi part) and I had a blow
gun with "pool floatie" nozzle on the end. Air was applied to the side
and front of the component, and nothing blew off or even looked like it
was moving.

However, application of heat with a heat gun set to high (which will melt
solder and remove components itself) and the compressor set to about 20
psi had excellent results removing components from the circuit board. A
bunch of LEDs came off in less than a minute (through-hole) and the smd
components came off even easier. Trouble was they'd blow away with the
force of the compressor.

In my opinion, an air compressor is not going to be sufficient to blow
chips off a cold circuit board. However, socketed ICs, pin and header
connections, shorting jumpers, and maybe even some switches may be
negatively affected by the compressed air. If sufficiently high heat
enters the equation, however, the force of the compressed air can easily
blow the solder away from the component and cause it to fly off.

You guys may have inadvertently sold me on another tool... I gotta see
how much those hot air soldering pencils cost.

Puckdropper
--
Make it to fit, don't make it fit.