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Desoldering through-hole ICs

S

Steve

Jan 1, 1970
0
I'm going to need to desolder about sixty 10-pin DIP ICs. I need to do this
without damaging the board or the components.

I've tried with my basic soldering iron and it has been a painful and time
consumiung process - my soldering skills are limited anyway. The main
problem seems to be that, although it seems all the solder has been removed
(with a solder sucker pump), some must still be there as the pins refuse to
budge.

So I'm looking at getting a desoldering iron such as this one:
http://tinyurl.com/5y2h9
(RS code 604-5012, 47UKP)
They seem to have a hollow tip and sucker built-in. If it worked I'd gladly
pay the money. But as someone inexperienced with a soldering iron, am I
likely to still have trouble doing it this way? Is there a better way?

Thanks,
Steve
 
G

Graham Knott

Jan 1, 1970
0
Steve said:
I'm going to need to desolder about sixty 10-pin DIP ICs. I need to
do this without damaging the board or the components.

I've tried with my basic soldering iron and it has been a painful and
time consumiung process - my soldering skills are limited anyway. The
main problem seems to be that, although it seems all the solder has
been removed (with a solder sucker pump), some must still be there as
the pins refuse to budge.

So I'm looking at getting a desoldering iron such as this one:
http://tinyurl.com/5y2h9
(RS code 604-5012, 47UKP)
They seem to have a hollow tip and sucker built-in. If it worked I'd
gladly pay the money. But as someone inexperienced with a soldering
iron, am I likely to still have trouble doing it this way? Is there a
better way?

Thanks,
Steve

You can buy an attachment which replaces the bit. It's a block of metal
which fits over all the pins of the IC and desolders them simultaneously.
I don't know where mine came from.
If you desolder pins one at a time then wriggle the pin with a pair of
pliers to ensure that it is completely desoldered. If it's not then resolder
and try again.
 
C

CBarn24050

Jan 1, 1970
0
Subject: Desoldering through-hole ICs
From: "Steve" [email protected]
Date: 12/10/2004 18:31 GMT Standard Time
Message-id: <[email protected]>

I'm going to need to desolder about sixty 10-pin DIP ICs. I need to do this
without damaging the board or the components.

Not sure if ive ever seen a 10 pin dip. The best way is ro heat all the pins
together, Weller make some heads for their irons. If you use a sucker then you
need to get all the solder out in 1 suck, if you fail resolder the pin and try
again, then grab the pin with some pliers and wiggle it untill it comes free.
 
J

John Larkin

Jan 1, 1970
0
I'm going to need to desolder about sixty 10-pin DIP ICs. I need to do this
without damaging the board or the components.

I've tried with my basic soldering iron and it has been a painful and time
consumiung process - my soldering skills are limited anyway. The main
problem seems to be that, although it seems all the solder has been removed
(with a solder sucker pump), some must still be there as the pins refuse to
budge.

So I'm looking at getting a desoldering iron such as this one:
http://tinyurl.com/5y2h9
(RS code 604-5012, 47UKP)
They seem to have a hollow tip and sucker built-in. If it worked I'd gladly
pay the money. But as someone inexperienced with a soldering iron, am I
likely to still have trouble doing it this way? Is there a better way?

Thanks,
Steve


Steve,

Consider heating all 10 pins at once, and just lifting the part out.
Yoy can clean up the holes with solder wick afterwards. You could heat
from below, with an adjustable paint-stripping kind of heat gun and a
simple metal mask, or make a small rectangular solder pot. There are
also big soldering iron tips that heat all the dip pins at the same
time, but you'll need a lot of heat to drive one of them.

John
 
Steve said:
I'm going to need to desolder about sixty 10-pin DIP ICs. I need to do this
without damaging the board or the components.
I've tried with my basic soldering iron and it has been a painful and time
consumiung process - my soldering skills are limited anyway. The main
problem seems to be that, although it seems all the solder has been removed
(with a solder sucker pump), some must still be there as the pins refuse to
budge.
So I'm looking at getting a desoldering iron such as this one:
http://tinyurl.com/5y2h9
(RS code 604-5012, 47UKP)
They seem to have a hollow tip and sucker built-in. If it worked I'd gladly
pay the money. But as someone inexperienced with a soldering iron, am I
likely to still have trouble doing it this way? Is there a better way?

Apply heat with your soldering iron, suck it away with the pump. Then use the
tip of a flat screwdriver to carefully pull the chipleg to the otherside in
the hole. Should feel like breaking a crispy cake.
When completed for all pins carefully lift the chip. And watch for any still
fastened pins. If so try with the screwdriver again, or repeat the first
course of action.
 
N

Neil

Jan 1, 1970
0
I found that solder wick was pretty good - does cost a bit though.
Sometimes needed to reflow a bit of solder back on the allow the wick to
work.
For me, it is eaasier than the desolder pump / sucker thingie.
hth
Neil
 
M

Michael Black

Jan 1, 1970
0
john jardine" ([email protected]) said:
Easy!.
An electric hot air gun. The kind used for stripping paint.
Heat up then pick off the IC's with tweezers.
Be careful!
But he says he wants to keep the board intact. While I've never tried
to use a heat gun carefully, when salvaging parts using a heat gun it
can make a mess of the board.

I tend to use a combination of the solder sucker and solder wick. Use
the sucker to get most of the solder, then work pin by pin to make sure they
are loose. I have a cheap Radio Shack desoldering iron, I'm not sure if
that's one under question, which I paid under ten dollars for about ten years
ago. I thought it worked decently, but the tip wasn't plated and it corroded
fairly fast. At the time, the store carried no replacement tips, though
the tip was replaceable. I kind of put the thing away when the tip got too
bad, and really haven't gotten back to it, though Radio Shack does carry
a replacement tip these days.

I have a standalone solder sucker, also bought at Radio Shack, and that seems
to have more sucking ability than the desoldering iron. Offsetting that is
the fact that you have to heat up the pin with an iron and then quickly use
the sucker.

Once I get most of the solder off with the sucker, then I may need to do
some more work with the solder wick, this seems to be the case with double
sided circuit boards.

Michael
 
B

Bruce

Jan 1, 1970
0
I'm going to need to desolder about sixty 10-pin DIP ICs. I need to do this
without damaging the board or the components.

I've tried with my basic soldering iron and it has been a painful and time
consumiung process - my soldering skills are limited anyway. The main
problem seems to be that, although it seems all the solder has been removed
(with a solder sucker pump), some must still be there as the pins refuse to
budge.

So I'm looking at getting a desoldering iron such as this one:
http://tinyurl.com/5y2h9
(RS code 604-5012, 47UKP)
They seem to have a hollow tip and sucker built-in. If it worked I'd gladly
pay the money. But as someone inexperienced with a soldering iron, am I
likely to still have trouble doing it this way? Is there a better way?

Thanks,
Steve


If you can get a desoldering tool with heated pencil and desolder vacuum built-in
go for it. We use a Hako 808 in our shop, and we can remove components from
the boards without damaging components or boards on any PCB's. Double-sided,
singles and multi-layer.

Double-sided boards are tough with desolder braid, and hand pumps because
you never get all the solder heated or removed from the component side. The
solder side looks clean, but there's still plenty of solder left under the component,
and trying to pry it off lifts pads & traces.

Too much heat thermally shocks & often kills the part you're trying to remove
so you can't keep the heat on it too long. Heat guns warp the PCB, and destroy
the majority of components too, so I wouldn't recommend trying one of these either.

Another "less expensive" option is a flat-blade surface mount removal tool that
replaces your irons soldering tip. Heat the whole row of pins, and lift one side
of the DIP all at once. You'll bend pins on the opposite side of the IC when lifting
it, but you don't trash the board or components. Then do the other side, straighten
the pins, and you're done.

You can probably find something similar to a Hako 808 on eBay. They're worth
the investment if you need to do a lot of PCB repair/component removal.
 
J

john jardine

Jan 1, 1970
0
Steve said:
I'm going to need to desolder about sixty 10-pin DIP ICs. I need to do this
without damaging the board or the components.

I've tried with my basic soldering iron and it has been a painful and time
consumiung process - my soldering skills are limited anyway. The main
problem seems to be that, although it seems all the solder has been removed
(with a solder sucker pump), some must still be there as the pins refuse to
budge.

So I'm looking at getting a desoldering iron such as this one:
http://tinyurl.com/5y2h9
(RS code 604-5012, 47UKP)
They seem to have a hollow tip and sucker built-in. If it worked I'd gladly
pay the money. But as someone inexperienced with a soldering iron, am I
likely to still have trouble doing it this way? Is there a better way?

Thanks,
Steve

Easy!.
An electric hot air gun. The kind used for stripping paint.
Heat up then pick off the IC's with tweezers.
Be careful!
 
S

Steve

Jan 1, 1970
0
Steve said:
I'm going to need to desolder about sixty 10-pin DIP ICs. I need to do this
without damaging the board or the components.

I've tried with my basic soldering iron and it has been a painful and time
consumiung process - my soldering skills are limited anyway. The main
problem seems to be that, although it seems all the solder has been removed
(with a solder sucker pump), some must still be there as the pins refuse to
budge.

So I'm looking at getting a desoldering iron such as this one:
http://tinyurl.com/5y2h9
(RS code 604-5012, 47UKP)
They seem to have a hollow tip and sucker built-in. If it worked I'd gladly
pay the money. But as someone inexperienced with a soldering iron, am I
likely to still have trouble doing it this way? Is there a better way?

Thanks,
Steve

Thanks very much everyone! So many great suggestions there - I will give
them a try.

Thanks again for the terrific response and help.

Steve
 
A

Andrew Holme

Jan 1, 1970
0
Neil said:
I found that solder wick was pretty good - does cost a bit though.
Sometimes needed to reflow a bit of solder back on the allow the wick to
work.
For me, it is eaasier than the desolder pump / sucker thingie.
hth
Neil

I second that. I never want to use a sucker again. Solder wick works
like magic. I've never damaged a pad using wick and it leaves the
area completely clean.
 
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