fred wrote:

Dave Plowman wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

I don't think I've ever encountered one, is it like a soldering iron
combined with a solder sucker?

Sort of. But has a hole up the middle of the bit etc connected to a vacuum
pump via a trap for the solder. They are brilliant devices.

As you say, they are brilliant devices and as I am sure you know, any
electronics workshop where they will do rework will have one. Pretty
much guaranteed results every time.

That's why I'm surprised not to have seen any, one particular repair
workshop at a customer looked after hundreds of
vehicle/personal/basestation radios/pagers/modems/muxes that got "heavy"
treatment - all closed down now - but three blokes would always have the
guts out of something on the bench - I don't remember seeing anything
other than a TC soldering iron and sucker or braid used.