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Electronics Repair (sci.electronics.repair) Discussion of repairing electronic equipment. Topics include requests for assistance, where to obtain servicing information and parts, techniques for diagnosis and repair, and annecdotes about success, failures and problems. |
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Desoldering Stations
Can anyone recommend a good used desoldering station? I've been looking
around on places like Ebay, and it seems even used ones can be pretty expensive. Weller, Pace, and Hakko seem to be the predominant brand names. I basically need something for general electronics - TV's, VCRs, etc. Something that can easily desolder a 64-pin IC, for example. I've been using a desoldering wick for years, it works but the stuff is rather expensive (and hard on the fingertips sometimes). I don't do any surface-mount work so I wouldn't need anything for that. Thanks for any advice. |
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"Chris F." wrote in message ... Can anyone recommend a good used desoldering station? I've been looking around on places like Ebay, and it seems even used ones can be pretty expensive. Weller, Pace, and Hakko seem to be the predominant brand names. I basically need something for general electronics - TV's, VCRs, etc. Something that can easily desolder a 64-pin IC, for example. I've been using a desoldering wick for years, it works but the stuff is rather expensive (and hard on the fingertips sometimes). I don't do any surface-mount work so I wouldn't need anything for that. Thanks for any advice. for occasional use a small shop vac block the intake and insert a vinyl hose from the hardware store. get a cheap mechanical vacuum sucker and drill a hole in the side. glue in the hose. add a cotton ball in the body of the sucker to prevent solder from gumming up the tube. add a footswitch to the vac for a final touch. of course with this system you melt the solder with your regular soldering pencil then apply the suction. |
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"Chris F." wrote in message
... Can anyone recommend a good used desoldering station? I've been looking around on places like Ebay, and it seems even used ones can be pretty expensive. Weller, Pace, and Hakko seem to be the predominant brand names. I basically need something for general electronics - TV's, VCRs, etc. Something that can easily desolder a 64-pin IC, for example. I've been using a desoldering wick for years, it works but the stuff is rather expensive (and hard on the fingertips sometimes). I don't do any surface-mount work so I wouldn't need anything for that. Thanks for any advice. Chris, I'd have to recommend Hakko and recommend against Weller. No real experience with Pace stuff. -- James T. White |
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"Chris F." wrote in message ... Can anyone recommend a good used desoldering station? I've been looking around on places like Ebay, and it seems even used ones can be pretty expensive. Weller, Pace, and Hakko seem to be the predominant brand names. I basically need something for general electronics - TV's, VCRs, etc. Something that can easily desolder a 64-pin IC, for example. I've been using a desoldering wick for years, it works but the stuff is rather expensive (and hard on the fingertips sometimes). I don't do any surface-mount work so I wouldn't need anything for that. I still like the iron with the bulb on top, but for big IC's I'd go with an iron with a selection of tips that size. My 2 cents. N |
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On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 23:59:06 GMT, Chris F. wrote:
Can anyone recommend a good used desoldering station? I've been looking around on places like Ebay, and it seems even used ones can be pretty expensive. Weller, Pace, and Hakko seem to be the predominant brand names. I have a Hakko and like it. Picked it up used on eBay relatively cheap a while ago. Had to get some parts for it, though, as it was not complete. That probably helped the price. Flea markets may be better shopping for you, if you're looking for used. eBay tends to draw higher prices than local, if you can find somebody selling local that isn't asking eBay prices. Or, if you can find a place that deals in used gear, they may have a better price than you'll find on-line, and with the benefit of getting to see the thing before you buy it. I basically need something for general electronics - TV's, VCRs, etc. Something that can easily desolder a 64-pin IC, for example. They all do one pin at a time... A friend of mine has some recommendations on: http://www.marvin3m.com/begin/index.htm The Xytronic ($100) or MPJA sound like good prices, but the Tenma ($250 on sale) is probably your best bet if you're buying new. I used the cheap Radio Shack sucker for a few years, and for being a $15 tool it works pretty well. It's not a _good_ tool, but it's surprisingly good for what you pay for it. Whatever you get, remember that it has consumable parts (filters, etc.), and be sure that you get some spares, and that you'll be able to get spares in the future. Depending on the design, see if you can get a spare filter tube for it, so that when it fills up, you can swap in a fresh one while the full one cools. Emptying out a full, hot, filter tube while you're working kinda sucks. -- | David Gersic www.zaccaria-pinball.com | | Plymouth: Please Let Your Mother Out from Under The Hood! | | Email address is munged to avoid spammers. Remove the underscores. | |
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In article , "Chris F."
wrote: Can anyone recommend a good used desoldering station? I've been looking around on places like Ebay, and it seems even used ones can be pretty expensive. Weller, Pace, and Hakko seem to be the predominant brand names. I basically need something for general electronics - TV's, VCRs, etc. Something that can easily desolder a 64-pin IC, for example. I've been using a desoldering wick for years, it works but the stuff is rather expensive (and hard on the fingertips sometimes). I don't do any surface-mount work so I wouldn't need anything for that. Thanks for any advice. If you want really cheap, get a heat gun with adjustable temperature and some modeling clay. Cover the surrounding components with modeling clay (so they don't blow away), set the heat gun to about 600F and apply to the target component until the solder melts and the components can be easily lifted or its pins pushed out of their holes. I use a dental pick to test the solder every few seconds to see if it's soft yet. This is not the most component friendly method, but I've been using it on home projects for several years, with very few failures. I've removed things as simple as 32 pin DIPs and as complex as 208 pin QFPs. For clean-up afterwards you may still need braid. But with the component removed you can use a wider braid (higher capacity per inch) and more powered soldering pencil and the braid's price seems to be constant per length regardless of width. Cleaning through-holes will be easier with the pins removed and can be done with the various air methods mentioned by others. -- A friend will help you move. A real friend will help you move a body. |
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"Jeff Walther" wrote in message
... In article , "Chris F." wrote: Can anyone recommend a good used desoldering station? I've been looking around on places like Ebay, and it seems even used ones can be pretty expensive. Weller, Pace, and Hakko seem to be the predominant brand names. I basically need something for general electronics - TV's, VCRs, etc. Something that can easily desolder a 64-pin IC, for example. I've been using a desoldering wick for years, it works but the stuff is rather expensive (and hard on the fingertips sometimes). I don't do any surface-mount work so I wouldn't need anything for that. Thanks for any advice. If you want really cheap, get a heat gun with adjustable temperature and some modeling clay. Cover the surrounding components with modeling clay (so they don't blow away), set the heat gun to about 600F and apply to the target component until the solder melts and the components can be easily lifted or its pins pushed out of their holes. I use a dental pick to test the solder every few seconds to see if it's soft yet. This is not the most component friendly method, but I've been using it on home projects for several years, with very few failures. I've removed things as simple as 32 pin DIPs and as complex as 208 pin QFPs. For clean-up afterwards you may still need braid. But with the component removed you can use a wider braid (higher capacity per inch) and more powered soldering pencil and the braid's price seems to be constant per length regardless of width. Cleaning through-holes will be easier with the pins removed and can be done with the various air methods mentioned by others. -- A friend will help you move. A real friend will help you move a body. I can second that, used the following today to remove a 32 pinner but most often use it for salvaging ICs before discarding rest. No troubles with over-heating of the salvaged ICs. Just to emphasise practise on an old board of TTL or such before using for repair. I own an old Pace, i think, de-solderer but last time i used it was perhaps 3 years ago. The great advantage of the following is you're pulling from the other side and it is very rare to dislodge a solder pad/trace and extremely quick and cheap. Other tips on http://homepages.tcp.co.uk/~diverse/ De-soldering ICs Use a hot-air paint-stripper,1400W,500 degree centigrade,with 2 level heat control to prolong element life. Activity may appear fearsome but it is no worse than a flow-solder bath.Pre-heat for one minute then apply to pcb,make extractor tool to pull ic from component side. Make an IC extractor from an old large pair,10 inch, of circlip pliers,the jaws need to open out enough to clip around the ends of up to 64 pin ICs with enough force to overcome the mechanical force of the situation where all the pins are angled relative to the PCB holes.Forge around both of the original circlip pins,one joggle at right angle to clear the heigth of the ICs and a slight inwards joggle to make purchase on the underside of the IC,grinding a wedge angle to the points helps particularly where there is no clearance between IC and pcb. [ Because of these joggles this tool is also useful for depressing the rear grippers and releasing of that type chassis mount fuseholders and switches when internally surrounded by other components ] Use this technique for salvaging (working order) up to 64 pin ics ( when practised ),other components, sm and even repair (tracks are not dislodged).For repair work beware of spatter of molten solder causing solder bridges on adjascent compoents because if you are doing the job properly,ie not dislodging pcb tracks the IC must be pulled out with some force and the board tends to flex so possibility of flicking solder. The secret is to be as quick as possible,idealy the body of the extracted ic will be just about handleable rather than too hot to touch.Try practising on a board with close packed TTL chips or similar and aim for an extraction rate of something like one every 2 seconds.Between boards keep the hot air gun running on low power setting (not switching off).Don't rest the gun against the board when heating as vibration seems to affect the element life also don't allow the board to flex back onto the gun for the same reason.Hold the gun so airflow is angled to the board as solder spat directly into the nozzle can kill the element. About the only components that cannot be removed with this technique are parts moulded in soft plastic,e.g. crystal sockets,rf coils with plastic former (IF coils usually OK) some DIP switches. Even these are desolderable intact if the body of the component is previously cooled with a blast of aerosol freezer spray. SAFETY NOTE:- ensure good ventilation, use safety goggles because trapped water etc in the capaillary structure of glass fibre reinfiorced PCB can super- heat to steam and jet out molten solder,also it is possible to overlook small electrolytic capacitors on the solder side of the board which of coarse explode with the direct heat of the hot air gun and beware of very slight risk of combustion of adjascent flammable parts especially where components have extra (un-noticed) mechanical bonding leading to extended duration of heating activity. Hint for de-soldering surface mount ICs. Use a hot-air paint-stripper,1400W,500 degree centigrade,with 2 level heat control to prolong element life. Form a ring of silicone covered wire around the IC{to isolate the remaing components on the pcb.Push a thin piece of wire under one side of the IC and form a loop around the IC,repeat on the other side;this is to remove the IC when the solder melts, tug on these wires while heating up to ensure minimum heating contact time. Place a slab of PTFE with right size hole cut into and clip pcb and slab together with clothes pegs/Bulldog clips etc. If the IC is for re-use then cover body of IC with heat insulating material or blast IC with freezer spray.Allow the hot-air gun to get up to heat{say 1 minute} before applying to IC. For more crowded boards make "conical" shrouds to surround the IC. I used some PTFE strip that i had but thin paxolin or similar but drilled and wired together would probably do. Cut 4 small trapezoids from the PTFE strip. Fixed together with all long edges one side and short edges adjascent on the other side. Fixed together with paper staples but for the smallest shroud for 8 pin SM had to wire together the final join. Forms a sort of truncated cone in shape. Tie to the PTFE cone (to stop the blower blowing it off) with copper wire or temporarily solder to distant points. When practised the heated contact time should be less than 2 seconds - no board distortion or collateral damage surprisingly. If you can't get the tugging wires under the IC then pass under a few pins at each corner. Because this tugging frees the IC at the earliest moment, the solder on the board is not fully melted and leaves a profile for localising the new IC in place and then solder pin by pin. SAFETY NOTE:- ensure good ventilation, use safety goggles,and beware of very slight risk of combustion. |
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One other little question - is there any advantage to "pulse-vaccuum"
systems? "Chris F." wrote in message ... Can anyone recommend a good used desoldering station? I've been looking around on places like Ebay, and it seems even used ones can be pretty expensive. Weller, Pace, and Hakko seem to be the predominant brand names. I basically need something for general electronics - TV's, VCRs, etc. Something that can easily desolder a 64-pin IC, for example. I've been using a desoldering wick for years, it works but the stuff is rather expensive (and hard on the fingertips sometimes). I don't do any surface-mount work so I wouldn't need anything for that. Thanks for any advice. |
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"M.Joshi" wrote in message
... I don't know if this question is relevant here but is a de-solder wick better and easier to use than a de-solder pump? I haven't had much luck using a de-solder wick. They seem to just get clogged and you end up putting the solder back on the connection instead of removing it. Am I not using it correctly? You might find that adding some solder flux makes the wick pull the solder off the connection much better. When the end of the braid gets tinned with solder, it's time to cut it off and start with clean wick end and more flux. Going through lots of solder wick is a down side of this method. -- James T. White |
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