I am looking to buy a hot air SMT rework station. Only for occasional use.
I like the idea of the vacuum pencil and the hot tweezers. What would be
the recommended tips for general use for ICs and resistors etc. I do not
need to do the PLLC size chips. Price $300 max or so.

"Herman" wrote in message
...
I am looking to buy a hot air SMT rework station. Only for occasional
use. I like the idea of the vacuum pencil and the hot tweezers. What
would be the recommended tips for general use for ICs and resistors etc.
I do not need to do the PLLC size chips. Price $300 max or so.


I have recently purchased a hot air rework station. It has hot air handpiece
with fully controllable airflow and temperature. Digital readout for temp.
Also has conventional iron with stand, again fully controllable temp and
digital readout. Comes with 5 round hot air nozzles. Square ones for QFPs
etc purchased from other sources fit, I understand from a friend who also
has one. Also 5 tips for the soldering iron, spare element for the hot air
and spare element for the soldering iron. I paid 55UKP for it, so work that
out in USD - about $80 maybe. Company I got it from is in China and called
dragondirectmall. Very efficient and helpful service. Once it had been
collected from them by DHL, arrived at my door less than 24 Hrs later. On
their eBay site, they have a video showing a station being built, and you
can see that for the money, it is incredible value.

Go to eBay and put in "KADA 852D" then look for the one that says "buy now
for £55". They have USD prices as well, as far as I recall. Very satisfied
with mine, so far.

Arfa

"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
news:FBh5o.37277$gM.26872@hurricane...


"Herman" wrote in message
...
I am looking to buy a hot air SMT rework station. Only for occasional
use. I like the idea of the vacuum pencil and the hot tweezers. What
would be the recommended tips for general use for ICs and resistors etc.
I do not need to do the PLLC size chips. Price $300 max or so.


I have recently purchased a hot air rework station. It has hot air
handpiece with fully controllable airflow and temperature. Digital readout
for temp. Also has conventional iron with stand, again fully controllable
temp and digital readout. Comes with 5 round hot air nozzles. Square ones
for QFPs etc purchased from other sources fit, I understand from a friend
who also has one. Also 5 tips for the soldering iron, spare element for
the hot air and spare element for the soldering iron. I paid 55UKP for it,
so work that out in USD - about $80 maybe. Company I got it from is in
China and called dragondirectmall. Very efficient and helpful service.
Once it had been collected from them by DHL, arrived at my door less than
24 Hrs later. On their eBay site, they have a video showing a station
being built, and you can see that for the money, it is incredible value.

Go to eBay and put in "KADA 852D" then look for the one that says "buy now
for £55". They have USD prices as well, as far as I recall. Very satisfied
with mine, so far.

Arfa

I was looking at that one. What do you think about the vacuum pencil and
the hot tweezers? Seems like a good idea for resistors and diodes. Do the
tips supplied work for small ICs? I have never used one of these stations.

"Herman" wrote in message
...

"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
news:FBh5o.37277$gM.26872@hurricane...


"Herman" wrote in message
...
I am looking to buy a hot air SMT rework station. Only for occasional
use. I like the idea of the vacuum pencil and the hot tweezers. What
would be the recommended tips for general use for ICs and resistors etc.
I do not need to do the PLLC size chips. Price $300 max or so.


I have recently purchased a hot air rework station. It has hot air
handpiece with fully controllable airflow and temperature. Digital
readout for temp. Also has conventional iron with stand, again fully
controllable temp and digital readout. Comes with 5 round hot air
nozzles. Square ones for QFPs etc purchased from other sources fit, I
understand from a friend who also has one. Also 5 tips for the soldering
iron, spare element for the hot air and spare element for the soldering
iron. I paid 55UKP for it, so work that out in USD - about $80 maybe.
Company I got it from is in China and called dragondirectmall. Very
efficient and helpful service. Once it had been collected from them by
DHL, arrived at my door less than 24 Hrs later. On their eBay site, they
have a video showing a station being built, and you can see that for the
money, it is incredible value.

Go to eBay and put in "KADA 852D" then look for the one that says "buy
now for £55". They have USD prices as well, as far as I recall. Very
satisfied with mine, so far.

Arfa

I was looking at that one. What do you think about the vacuum pencil and
the hot tweezers? Seems like a good idea for resistors and diodes. Do
the tips supplied work for small ICs? I have never used one of these
stations.


I've never bothered with vacuum pencils and hot tweezers. I guess it depends
how much you are going to be doing with it. I work with surface mount on a
daily basis, but it's actually pretty reliable stuff, in general. When I
need to get a resistor off a board, I just heat both ends alternately with a
standard iron, and then 'flick' it off the pads. If I have one that is in an
awkward place to do that, I use one of the shaped bits that I have for my
Antex station. These are just 'standard' tips in that they fit any Antex 25
watt iron, but have a sort of 'forked' tip, the prongs being the right
distance apart to heat both ends simultaneously, of standard profile sm
components. There are also tips in the same range that have an I.C. spacing
to the forks, and are the length of an IC. Good for your standard sized 8 /
14 / 24 etc pinned sm ICs. I have a full set of these specially shaped tips
that I use when needed with my Antex temp controlled station. Not cheap, but
a good investment. As for picking the devices up, I just use needle tipped
stainless steel tweezers.

The smallest nozzle supplied for the hot air handpiece is a couple of mm
diameter. It easily allows removal of ICs as long as they are not too big.
The process involves going round and round the pin rows until it's hot
enough for the solder on all pins to stay molten long enough to flick the IC
off the board. Obviously, if it's a very big QFP package, then that's not so
easy to do, and a shaped nozzle to heat all four sides at once, is more
appropriate.

That said, when I got my KADA hot air station, I spent a while getting a
'feel' for it, and I removed all sizes of QFP ICs from and old mother board,
and just to prove that you could, I even removed two BGAs that were probably
4cm square each.

I guess it's horses for courses, but for general use, so far, I can
thoroughly recommend my KADA as being a good value for money tool, and
actually, of remarkable quality and functionality, for the price.

Arfa

"Arfa Daily" wrote in
news:Kw26o.18759$MQ3.15154@hurricane:



"Herman" wrote in message
...

"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
news:FBh5o.37277$gM.26872@hurricane...


"Herman" wrote in message
...
I am looking to buy a hot air SMT rework station. Only for
occasional use. I like the idea of the vacuum pencil and the hot
tweezers. What would be the recommended tips for general use for
ICs and resistors etc. I do not need to do the PLLC size chips.
Price $300 max or so.


I have recently purchased a hot air rework station. It has hot air
handpiece with fully controllable airflow and temperature. Digital
readout for temp. Also has conventional iron with stand, again fully
controllable temp and digital readout. Comes with 5 round hot air
nozzles. Square ones for QFPs etc purchased from other sources fit,
I understand from a friend who also has one. Also 5 tips for the
soldering iron, spare element for the hot air and spare element for
the soldering iron. I paid 55UKP for it, so work that out in USD -
about $80 maybe. Company I got it from is in China and called
dragondirectmall. Very efficient and helpful service. Once it had
been collected from them by DHL, arrived at my door less than 24 Hrs
later. On their eBay site, they have a video showing a station being
built, and you can see that for the money, it is incredible value.

Go to eBay and put in "KADA 852D" then look for the one that says
"buy now for £55". They have USD prices as well, as far as I recall.
Very satisfied with mine, so far.

Arfa

I was looking at that one. What do you think about the vacuum pencil
and the hot tweezers? Seems like a good idea for resistors and
diodes. Do the tips supplied work for small ICs? I have never used
one of these stations.


I've never bothered with vacuum pencils and hot tweezers. I guess it
depends how much you are going to be doing with it. I work with
surface mount on a daily basis, but it's actually pretty reliable
stuff, in general. When I need to get a resistor off a board, I just
heat both ends alternately with a standard iron, and then 'flick' it
off the pads. If I have one that is in an awkward place to do that, I
use one of the shaped bits that I have for my Antex station. These are
just 'standard' tips in that they fit any Antex 25 watt iron, but have
a sort of 'forked' tip, the prongs being the right distance apart to
heat both ends simultaneously, of standard profile sm components.
There are also tips in the same range that have an I.C. spacing to the
forks, and are the length of an IC. Good for your standard sized 8 /
14 / 24 etc pinned sm ICs. I have a full set of these specially shaped
tips that I use when needed with my Antex temp controlled station. Not
cheap, but a good investment. As for picking the devices up, I just
use needle tipped stainless steel tweezers.

The smallest nozzle supplied for the hot air handpiece is a couple of
mm diameter. It easily allows removal of ICs as long as they are not
too big. The process involves going round and round the pin rows until
it's hot enough for the solder on all pins to stay molten long enough
to flick the IC off the board. Obviously, if it's a very big QFP
package, then that's not so easy to do, and a shaped nozzle to heat
all four sides at once, is more appropriate.

That said, when I got my KADA hot air station, I spent a while getting
a 'feel' for it, and I removed all sizes of QFP ICs from and old
mother board, and just to prove that you could, I even removed two
BGAs that were probably 4cm square each.

I guess it's horses for courses, but for general use, so far, I can
thoroughly recommend my KADA as being a good value for money tool, and
actually, of remarkable quality and functionality, for the price.

Arfa



I've used the Pace thermo-tweeze system,at Tektronix.It's nice,but the tips
for the many types of ICs gets costly.

do you use a hot plate [or other pre-heat] for pre-heat of the workpiece?


--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com

"Jim Yanik" wrote in message
4...
"Arfa Daily" wrote in
news:Kw26o.18759$MQ3.15154@hurricane:



"Herman" wrote in message
...

"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
news:FBh5o.37277$gM.26872@hurricane...


"Herman" wrote in message
...
I am looking to buy a hot air SMT rework station. Only for
occasional use. I like the idea of the vacuum pencil and the hot
tweezers. What would be the recommended tips for general use for
ICs and resistors etc. I do not need to do the PLLC size chips.
Price $300 max or so.


I have recently purchased a hot air rework station. It has hot air
handpiece with fully controllable airflow and temperature. Digital
readout for temp. Also has conventional iron with stand, again fully
controllable temp and digital readout. Comes with 5 round hot air
nozzles. Square ones for QFPs etc purchased from other sources fit,
I understand from a friend who also has one. Also 5 tips for the
soldering iron, spare element for the hot air and spare element for
the soldering iron. I paid 55UKP for it, so work that out in USD -
about $80 maybe. Company I got it from is in China and called
dragondirectmall. Very efficient and helpful service. Once it had
been collected from them by DHL, arrived at my door less than 24 Hrs
later. On their eBay site, they have a video showing a station being
built, and you can see that for the money, it is incredible value.

Go to eBay and put in "KADA 852D" then look for the one that says
"buy now for £55". They have USD prices as well, as far as I recall.
Very satisfied with mine, so far.

Arfa

I was looking at that one. What do you think about the vacuum pencil
and the hot tweezers? Seems like a good idea for resistors and
diodes. Do the tips supplied work for small ICs? I have never used
one of these stations.


I've never bothered with vacuum pencils and hot tweezers. I guess it
depends how much you are going to be doing with it. I work with
surface mount on a daily basis, but it's actually pretty reliable
stuff, in general. When I need to get a resistor off a board, I just
heat both ends alternately with a standard iron, and then 'flick' it
off the pads. If I have one that is in an awkward place to do that, I
use one of the shaped bits that I have for my Antex station. These are
just 'standard' tips in that they fit any Antex 25 watt iron, but have
a sort of 'forked' tip, the prongs being the right distance apart to
heat both ends simultaneously, of standard profile sm components.
There are also tips in the same range that have an I.C. spacing to the
forks, and are the length of an IC. Good for your standard sized 8 /
14 / 24 etc pinned sm ICs. I have a full set of these specially shaped
tips that I use when needed with my Antex temp controlled station. Not
cheap, but a good investment. As for picking the devices up, I just
use needle tipped stainless steel tweezers.

The smallest nozzle supplied for the hot air handpiece is a couple of
mm diameter. It easily allows removal of ICs as long as they are not
too big. The process involves going round and round the pin rows until
it's hot enough for the solder on all pins to stay molten long enough
to flick the IC off the board. Obviously, if it's a very big QFP
package, then that's not so easy to do, and a shaped nozzle to heat
all four sides at once, is more appropriate.

That said, when I got my KADA hot air station, I spent a while getting
a 'feel' for it, and I removed all sizes of QFP ICs from and old
mother board, and just to prove that you could, I even removed two
BGAs that were probably 4cm square each.

I guess it's horses for courses, but for general use, so far, I can
thoroughly recommend my KADA as being a good value for money tool, and
actually, of remarkable quality and functionality, for the price.

Arfa



I've used the Pace thermo-tweeze system,at Tektronix.It's nice,but the
tips
for the many types of ICs gets costly.

do you use a hot plate [or other pre-heat] for pre-heat of the workpiece?


--
Jim Yanik


Interesting you should ask that Jim. I've just been working on some boards
where the use of hot air was the only option, but I was finding that I had
to get the areas of concern up to a very high temperature in order for the
heat that was being put in, to not be leached away by the board substrate.
So I employed a bit of lateral thinking, and knocked up a little jig to hold
the boards flat and level about 3 inches or so above the base (a piece of
MDF). I then fitted two 12v 50 watt halogen lamps - the sort fitted in
ceiling downlighters, shaped like an Apollo rocket nose cone - pointing
upwards, and under the areas of concern. I switch these on, and leave them
for about 5 minutes. When I come back, the board is toasty warm, and I am
then able to carry out the soldering work using less air and temperature. So
far, this has been 100% successful on every one that I've done.

Arfa

On Aug 3, 6:01*am, "Herman" wrote:
snip
I was looking at that one. *What do you think about the vacuum
pencil and
the hot tweezers? *Seems like a good idea for resistors and diodes.
*Do the
tips supplied work for small ICs? *I have never used one of these
stations.

A couple weeks back we had to transplant a pair of 100 pin QFP chips
on an old Sony broadcast VTR. To remove them we used an Ungar hot air
gun like you'd use for heat shrink. To replace them we used a Metcal
STTC-126 tip and over-soldered and cleaned up with solder wick
followed by flux removal. These were not high density pins but I have
used this technique on 0.5 mm pin spacing. Personally I find a Metcal
soldering iron a far more useful tool.

G²