Given your requirement is to avoid damage to the SMD components, I
assume you need to re-use them?

As Tim H. posted, Chipquik is ideal for SMD removal by hand as it allows
you to reflow solder at temperatures low enough to avoid heat damage to
the board or component - the tricky part is removing and cleaning the
component without bending any pins. Most of the SMD rework information
available assumes devices will be discarded after removal.



I had to replace an FPGA on a development board once. I used a $20 heat gun
clamped in a partially-completed CNC machine I was building. It only takes a
few seconds for the solder to melt when the heat gun is on its lowest
setting. I also used the heat gun to solder on the new FPGA, then touched up
a few pins with a soldering iron. Ideally there would be a heat shield to
prevent heating up other components, but in this case it wasn't a problem.
The pins heat up so much faster than the rest of the chip; all you need to
do is keep the internal temperature of the device less than 450 degrees F.
Here's a photo of the removed chip:
http://www.macetech.com/desolder-close.jpg