On Mar 13, 21:28, SUPRDAVE wrote:
> with all this talk of soldering and desoldering, is it possible for a layman
> to do this with just a regular low wattage soldering iron? any tips from the
> pros?
Sure, with a little care and practice, but don't use a really low-power iron.
Many of them don't have much thermal storage (some people call it thermal
inertia) which means that when you place it on the joint, the heat flows out of
the tip (to be shared with the joint) and it all cools down. It takes a while
for the element to raise the temperature above the solder liquidus point again,
and in the meantime that heat is travelling to all the places you don't want.
Far better to use a reasonable wattage temperature-controlled iron (mine is
50W), which heats the joint up fast, so you can remove the iron fairly quickly.
For the same reason, don't use *too* fine a bit.
For larger stuff, I use a 120W Weller soldering gun which I bought in the
heyday of valves (vacuum tubes, for you colonists). At the University, we have
a Steinel temperature-controlled hot-air gun which chucks out lots of air at up
to 400C, great for surface mount removals (and refitting/reflow, with care).
There's a proper SMD station as well, but only one person is allowed near
that. However, I confess I'm a member of the blowtorch club at at home. I can
confirm that it's possible to remove DIL and SIMM sockets that way, as well as
ICs!
Personally, I use a fairly large piston-type desolder sucker. I hate braid -
although it's good for removing bridges on SMDs - and hate those awkward
desolder bulbs. I once had a vacuum desoldering iron, but it was always
getting clogged...
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
Received on Sat Mar 14 1998 - 21:29:12 GMT