#28 The best solder sucker for hobbyists - ENGINEER SS-02

https://makertube.net/w/bd3F5ReBzPPQsHL8B2hBZ7

Okay I'm going to make one of these aluminum shims to try out this desoldering technique. Seems pretty rad!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E7y5i1DkGo
#solder #desolder

What Parts Should You Desolder? https://hackaday.com/2023/11/05/what-parts-should-you-desolder/ #stockparts #ToolHacks #desolder #junkbox #Parts #scrap #junk

Desoldering Without Hot Air: Piece Of Wire Edition

Quite a few hackers nowadays share their tips and tricks on Twitter - it's easy to do so, and provided either an existing audience or a bit of effort to get one, you'll get at least a few notifications telling you that people appreciated what you had to share. Today, we're covering two desoldering hacks highlighted there that will be useful some day, exactly when you need them. Both of them use a piece of wire and, in a way, extend the reach of your soldering iron's tip. Copper wire would work better because of superior thermal conductivity, but other types of solid core wire will work in a pinch.

First hack is brought to us by [Erin Rose] - desoldering a microUSB socket. You need to heat up the entire shield and the pins at the same time, which the wire acts as a thermal gateway for. As long as there are melted solder bridges from sections of the wire to all the copper-to-part connection points, it should be easy to pump enough heat into the solder joints for all of them to eventually melt and give in at once.

Second hack is brought to us by [arturo182]. A piece of thick wire acts, again, as a heat conductor to desolder a 0.5mm pitch TQFP-100 package IC. You have to bend the wire into a correct shape, so that it's as close to the pins of the TQFP as possible. In this situation, the wire performs two functions: first, transferring the heat from the iron's tip to different points along the wire, then, as a barrier that helps solder not escape too far away from the pins. Copious amounts of flux likely desired for this one!

Hopefully, this comes handy if you ever need to replace an all-SMD part ASAP but don't have a hot air gun or a hotplate handy. After getting this concept down to an art, we are sure you won't limit yourself to TQFP parts and MicroUSB sockets. We've talked about desoldering practices before as part of our newsletter, and using lots of melted solder for part removal is not a foreign concept to us, either.

An interesting technique for desoldering QFP without hot air! pic.twitter.com/50ynzkrJXb

-- arturo182 (@arturo182) January 2, 2021

#lifehacks #toolhacks #desolder #desoldering #desolderingtools #microusb #soldering #tqfp

Make Your Desoldering Easier by Minding Your Own Bismuth

Any video that starts with a phase diagram has instantly earned our attention. Admittedly, we have a pretty low bar for that kind of stuff, but eye candy aside, [Robin Debreuil]'s quick outline of his technique for desoldering with the help of bismuth is worth watching.

Aside from its use in those pink gloopy solutions one takes for an upset stomach, bismuth has a lot of commercial applications. For the purposes of desoldering, though, its tendency to lower the melting point of tin and tin alloys like solder is what makes it a valuable addition to the toolkit. [Robin] starts with a demonstration of just how far a little bismuth depresses the melting point of tin solder -- to about 135°. That allows plenty of time to work, and freeing leads from pads becomes a snap. He demonstrates this with some large QFP chips, which practically jump off the board. He also demonstrates a neat technique for cleaning the bismuth-tin mix off the leads, using a length of desoldering braid clamped at an angle to the vertical with some helping-hands clips. The braid wicks the bismuth-tin mix away from the leads along one side of the chip, while gravity pulls it down the braid to pool safely on the bench. Pretty slick.

Lest leaded solder fans fret, [Robin] ensures us this works well for lead-tin solder too. You won't have to worry about breaking the bank, either; bismuth is pretty cheap and easily sourced. And as a bonus, it's pretty non-toxic, at least as far as heavy metals go. But alas -- it apparently doesn't machine very well.

#toolhacks #bismuth #braid #desolder #eutectic #lead #phasediagram #solder #tin