John Robertson wrote:


I HAVE a Pace Desoldering station (actually two of them) - however I am
usually just removing one or two ICs and I can remove them with my
Weller (#7!) and Soldapullt faster than the Pace will heat up!

Yes, this is absolutely true! But, for something really expensive, or where
I have a lot of pins to desolder, I take the time to warm up the Pace, and
always get GREAT results. Usually the part just falls off the board when
the last pin is desoldered.
You can get a nice rhythm going where you heat two leads at the same
time (medium tip) and suck both together, then while the next pair are
warming up you are reloadng the sucker with your other hand. I can pull
a 40 pin chip in a minute or less typically (not that I ever time
myself, it just seems to go pretty fast.).

Once the legs are unsoldered I then use a tiny screwdriver to push the
bottom leads back and forth across the feed through hole. If it appears
to be stuck I put a dab of solder and resuck.
With the Pace, and the technique of orbiting the tip while applying suction,
I RARELY have this happen. Usually, I desolder the whole chip and it just
falls off the board. That wigglign back and forth can damage the plated
barrel of the hole.

Jon