On Mon, 01 Aug 2005 05:21:08 GMT "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:

budgie wrote:

I presume you removed the original chip from the board one leg at a time? If
you don't, damage is fairly much inevitable.

Bull! I've replaced thousands of chips on Plated Through Hole PCBs
in the last 20 years and only had a couple damaged PTH. I used the
cheap Radio Shack desoldering iron on most of them, and sometimes a
little solder wick with Kester RMA liquid flux to clean leads that were
soldered to heavy traces on the top of the board.

I've never managed to do well at this, so I've given up and clip the
leads so I can remove one leg at a time. Most of what I work on has
been HP boards, and the holes are so tight that I can't get a leg to
come completely loose by any amount of solder sucking. I have to pull
them while hot.

I find that different manufacturers use widely varying hole sizes for
their PTHs. That would make a big difference.

Does your desoldering iron allow you to heat up the whole chip at one
time? I've often thought that I should make some modified tips for my
Weller WTCP iron so I could do this. If I had that option, I'm sure it
would be easy to remove complete ICs.

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Jim Adney
Madison, WI 53711 USA
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