Soldering / desoldering / maintenance tools recommendations

[Ed Oscuro]

Seller is telling me some strange stuff about people complaining there's no suction - that's really not the point. It was advertised as new - so it should be new throughout, not with a scuffed-up body and solder flakes inside the filter pipe...it's odd, though, since most of the kit is new. Maybe somebody just swapped in a lightly-used gun, or maybe they just used the gun for some months and then sold it on. It's a mystery.

I had to test it out all the same - that damn Xbox aerogel capacitor has been taunting me for a long while. I had hoped to do some practice desoldering on a board to get rid of an old cap with one of its legs pulled out, but I noticed there was a backplane in the way - decided to forego it and go straight for the capacitor. Let the gun heat for nine minutes, went back to it, held the board in place, held the gun to the legs - didn't really heat up the solder through the leg, so I pushed the gun in near the solder - and that does it. Had to desolder the first leg a second time, but it was really clean. Took me maybe two minutes total, and most of that because of trying to heat up the solder blob through the leg. I guess I will continue to do that in the future - the pads didn't lift at all and the board wasn't damaged at all from the very short contact period, but I still want to minimize that.

Overall, it turned out to be a bunch of anticipation and worrying over what was a very easy job. The only thing remotely difficult was just making sure the nozzle was stably aligned with the board, but I managed it with one hand holding the board. Piece of cake.

Next up will be soldering - that will be a different kettle of fish altogether. I would like to use ROHS approved solder, but...eh, so many drawbacks to it, especially on old equipment...not sure what to think there.

Does anybody here do something special for leaded solder disposal?

[system11]

Can't go wrong with good old fashioned lead based solder with added flux.

And as you'll notice, when desoldering something it's worth reflowing it first with a touch of extra new solder. Makes life a whole world easier.

[beatsgo]

As what system11 mention, there's a reason why you should solder old joints: it displaces the old solder and mixes into the new. Older solder is sometimes harder to get rid of, so this technique does wonders when desoldering components.

[Ed Oscuro]

Great pointers guys, I'll keep those in mind!

I have read a little bit about the pitfalls of mixing old-style and new solder, and I don't think that the new solder is a good fit for much of the primarily ancient boards we deal with anyways. Somebody might think the new solder is a bad solder job (apparently some of it can have a burned appearance) and of course the higher melting points / reduced joint flexibility is bad too - on the other hand there are some good properties of the new lead-free solder. Hmm. I guess I'll have to take the attitude that I'm not dealing with items that are going to be e-waste soon, and those that are should just be recycled properly. The RoHS stuff is mainly intended to target mass production items that people carelessly throw away...can't beat the idiocy of some people to ruin things for everybody else.

[Ed Oscuro]

Alright, older SMD / SMT components, like surface-mounted can capacitors. How to desolder / resolder them? I'm sure that the Hakko 808 will work on some in a pinch, but not all. Do folks just revert to soldering iron + flux in these cases? I'm not really worried about tiny surface mounted ceramic capacitors, but stuff like the Game Gear.

Still happy I got a desoldering gun for through-hole stuff, but I think I might need a SMD / SMT rework station next.

[Retro Access]

For emergency's sake, and lacking better tools when I moved to the USA, I used a crappy radioshack desoldering iron with the bulb on it. You hold the iron (it has a tube head) on the solder points and squeeze the bulb.

Not recommended for a lot of work because the heads just wear out fast, but good for a one off like pulling ICs out of a nes - this is what I used it for. It cost like $12 and did the job well.

No point spending a lot if you are just going to be transplanting ICs once.

For soldering I have a Hakko digital station, I prefer the stand on it to the weller ones. I had a weller in the UK and it broke after 6 months so I tried a different brand this time, it's held up longer and I have this thing switched on 8 hours a day.

[ApolloBoy]

Alright, older SMD / SMT components, like surface-mounted can capacitors. How to desolder / resolder them?

I just use desoldering braid and a little flux for removing small SMD components. For capacitors though, I actually just twist them off with pliers, clean the area with rubbing alcohol if they've leaked, and then clean up the pads with desoldering braid.

[eightbitminiboss]

Alright, older SMD / SMT components, like surface-mounted can capacitors. How to desolder / resolder them?

I just use desoldering braid and a little flux for removing small SMD components. For capacitors though, I actually just twist them off with pliers, clean the area with rubbing alcohol if they've leaked, and then clean up the pads with desoldering braid.

Reminds me I should probably start working on my PC Engine Duo before the caps go if they haven't already...

[ApolloBoy]

Alright, older SMD / SMT components, like surface-mounted can capacitors. How to desolder / resolder them?

I just use desoldering braid and a little flux for removing small SMD components. For capacitors though, I actually just twist them off with pliers, clean the area with rubbing alcohol if they've leaked, and then clean up the pads with desoldering braid.

Reminds me I should probably start working on my PC Engine Duo before the caps go if they haven't already...

That's exactly the technique I used for Duos when I worked on them regularly. The Duo's motherboard is surprisingly well-made too, not once did I pull off a pad or trace recapping it that way. Wish I could say the same for the TurboExpress though.

But yeah, you should totally recap your Duo if you haven't already, since I'm willing to bet that all of the SMD caps have leaked. That was the case with every Duo I worked on.

[Ed Oscuro]

I'm not about to try the twisting method on a handheld PC Engine, so guess it looks like I'm back to looking at SMT rework stations...

I suppose I could try carefully cutting the capacitors and then desoldering from above (the leads).

[leonk]

I'm not about to try the twisting method on a handheld PC Engine, so guess it looks like I'm back to looking at SMT rework stations...

I suppose I could try carefully cutting the capacitors and then desoldering from above (the leads).

You should always use the correct tool for the job you're working on. In the case of SMD, you should use a reflow station, not a desolder station. There's a lot of cheap made-in-china stations on eBay, but they're all VERY DANGEROUS. Missing ground, the on/off switch that switches the neutral and not hot wire! fake fuses, etc.

There are a few very busy forum posts over on EEV blog discussing this. But if you're good with electronics, and know what to look for, you can fix all the issues with the cheap china reflow stations and convert them into pretty good decent ones!

[Ed Oscuro]

I was thinking of something along these lines:
- i.e. hakko fm-2023 (for use with fm-203 / 206)
- http://www.newark.com/weller/wta50/smd- ... dp/20C5672

Actually, I think I missed an obvious problem there - getting under surface mount components like caps. So I guess that's where the hot air / preheater comes in.

[leonk]

Not sure how far you want to go, but if you want to remove IC's with more than 2 legs (surface mount EPROMs, IC's, CPUs, etc) than rework station is only way to do it.

Desolder station is really for older through hole components (non-existant for the most part today) but for people that are into 90's or older video games, it works just fine.

[rtw]

If you want to desolder SMD in an easy fashion I have had great success with: ChipQuik

http://www.chipquik.com/

[Ed Oscuro]

If you want to desolder SMD in an easy fashion I have had great success with: ChipQuik

http://www.chipquik.com/

Yeah, I ran across that too. ~150 degree heating requirement doesn't sound so bad. Is there any additional cleanup?

[rtw]

Yeah, I ran across that too. ~150 degree heating requirement doesn't sound so bad. Is there any additional cleanup?

After the device is removed all you need to do is cleanup the pads with a solder wick, the videos show everything.

[Ed Oscuro]

Hmm, might go with flush (or semi-flush) / side cutters (something like these) and chipquik then (although actually might not need the CQ if I can just warm the solder, tweezer the lead left behind out of the way, and vacuum up warmed solder).

[rtw]

Hmm, might go with flush (or semi-flush) / side cutters (something like these) and chipquik then (although actually might not need the CQ if I can just warm the solder, tweezer the lead left behind out of the way, and vacuum up warmed solder).

If you are cutting SMD legs you chould be aware that then you cut the legs you create a considerable force on the pad.

[leonk]

If you want to desolder SMD in an easy fashion I have had great success with: ChipQuik

http://www.chipquik.com/

This works, for pads that you have direct access to. IF you're trying to remove BGA/CPU/fix XBOX360 with RROD, this will not work.

Also, it's VERY expensive! Good if you have to fix 1 item per year, not good if you have a lot of repair to do.

[Ed Oscuro]

Noticed something strange: In this video, a user mentions the "Chinese Export" logo. That's right - this particular station's "look at me" CE mark isn't the official European Community mark. Companies can self-certify, but if you don't have the real mark affixed, well...negative points for Aoyue there, that's a big red flag (assuming that's a real Aoyue machine and not a knock-off of a knock-off).