I recently replaced a broken power jack on my laptop using an iron, plunger, and solder wick. Despite only having five solder points, it was very very difficult and the result was pretty mangled. If the plunger leaves behind even half a millimeter of solder, that's still enough to hold the component in place.
I want to remove analog and DVI ports from an LCD control board, and those have a LOT of connections. I also need to preserve the function of the other parts of the board, so these components need to be removed cleaning without affecting other close-by components, so a solder pot doesn't seem like the best bet.
Solder suckers cause carnage and damage boards, best to avoid them. hot-air rework station is
probably the best way to do delicate work. You can screen other parts of the board with
kapton tape which is heat-resistant. Kapton - Wikipedia
Depending on what youre desoldering, you might want to make your own soldering tip.
A somewhat simple way is to take a piece of steel wire, bend it in a u-shape, then fix the wire to the soldering iron with the screw that fixes your tip to the soldering iron.
Then you can bend the wire ends sticking out of the iron, so they lay flat against the surface while holding the soldering iron in about 50-60° angle.
Then you can use your iron to heat both sides of the component at the same time, just sliding it off the board with the iron tip.
You might need to ajust the gap between the steel wire ends, to snugly fit your component.
In case youre desoldering thru-hole components, sometimes you can break them apart, addressing a single pin at a time.
In case that fails, try fixing some tape or similar to your component (to pull on), and heat all the pins "simultaniously", sliding your iron tip along the row of solder points.
And as others have already suggested, use something worthless to practice on, you do NOT want to destroy your project because of lack of patience..
ive been there too many times to count and it does NOT get easier to cope with, quite the opposite for me actually, i get increasingly mad at myself, because i should have known by now not to do those n00b-mistakes..
I find that desoldering SMD components is quick and easy with hot air.
However, when it comes to through hole connectors with multiple pins it can get difficult and messy even with hot air.
I recently had to desolder a 20pin 1.27 pitch pin header attached to a malfunctioned display and it was a real pain.
The friction force of each pin with the PCB adds up and even when you manage to remove all solder, it still not easy to pull out.
The friction force of each pin with the PCB adds up and even when you manage to remove all solder, it still not easy to pull out.
That's usually the point were you destroy the board by pulling out one ore mor of the vias, still attached with a very small amount of solder to the pin. Even with a high quality solder extraction system, this is still a common problem. If you don't care about the connector, I will put the board in the board vise, grab each pin with an appropriate sized pair of pliers and then heat the pin and pull them out, one at a time. Once the connector pins have been depopulated, it's an easy matter to clear the remaining solder only filled holes. No chance for board damage.
If the multi-pin device is small enough, I put the widest tip I have on my iron and try to heat all the pins at once. Remove the device and clean out the holes.
On multil-legged smd IC's that I know are bad, l first remove the device by cutting all the pins, either with small flush cutters for small, 0.10 spaced pins or when it's a 100 pin qfp or similar, I very carefully remove the package by cutting through all the formed leads with a Dremel tool with the smallest, thinnest cut-off wheel they make. Cut near and into the epoxy package, well away from the board. Cutting the package out in this way is quite easy. Then it's a simple matter to set the board on edge, vertical or near vertical, and with a wide soldering iron tip and with additional solder, drag solder the pins into one massive ball of pins and solder for each side of the package outline. Once the pins are removed, clean up for a new part with .05" solder wick.
The ability to grind/cut ICs out in this manner is quite safe with lead free boards. It's about the only good side to lead free, IMO. Do not do this with non-lead free devices!
Often you do have to make a choice between salvaging the component or the board. Whichever one you don't want to keep can be cut or melted until it can be removed in pieces.
The ultimate desolder tool is a Hakko 808 or its replacement. (The 808 is old now.) Usually I can save both the component and the board. It's a relatively expensive tool.
Another option is ChipQuik which is a very low melting point solder. You suck out as much solder as you can, then resolder with ChipQuik. That dilutes the remaining solder and makes it easier to suck out for the next try.
I do rework as part of my summer job, I use a soldering iron and can only do through hole stuff. The part to be removed is often cut and each leg is removed separately. For multipin connectors we heat one joint at a time and pull the whole pin out with needle nose pliers. Anything SMD gets sent to a specific rework dept with hot air rework stations. Solder suckers are banned, the company would rather buy shed loads of wick, and they are loathe to spend any money unless absolutely necessary.
