De-solder tools

[ChrisM]

Another useful trick for removing solder is to heat up the soldered area and give the board a good whack on the bench. The solder comes flying out and usually leaves a really clean hole. It just takes practice not making a mess every time.

+1

I do this a lot with PCB and eyelets.
I remember R.G. mentioning that trick over at DIYstomp. It's actually quite ingenious but very simple.

[Noel Grassy]

+100^Cliff's method!

I saw my friend doing this to a PCB and it was loaded with parts. Pretty soon he's getting relatively clean parts falling off the board with every whack. The holes were actually cleared and he saved about 75% of the labor to do it meticulously with the suxzittup. I was sold!

I still use the Hakko #808, it's on tip #2 in 20+ years.
Yep, I always spray a short blast of Triflow on the spring and piston after cleaning out a clogged Solder Suxitup.
The Hakko is anodized Black and I've got my first suxzit in anodized Blue. I never liked those honkin' Blue/Yella ones. The damn spring was way too aggressive for the confined areas in an amp!

I've never been able to make the Copper braid stuff comply. I mean I used flux like Holy water, steel woolled the braid for oxidants, plenty heat---still not a half an iota of solder would come up!

Noel Grassy.

[soulfixinman]

Solder wick always works for me...the solder suckers all tend to break down or are hard to get into some areas.

The trick is you have to have 3 different sizes of solder wick and use the correct iron and tip for each.

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/browse/Wi ... 0000001200

[Cliff Schecht]

Solder wick always works for me...the solder suckers all tend to break down or are hard to get into some areas.

The trick is you have to have 3 different sizes of solder wick and use the correct iron for each.

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/browse/Wi ... 0000001200

This. Using huge braid on tiny joints or vice versa is always a nightmare.

Also, a great trick with braid is to get the solder flowing and actually drag the braid through the work. The braid typically has enough flux to suck the solder along and moving the braid helps with getting that solder to flow nicely.

[soulfixinman]

Also, a great trick with braid is to get the solder flowing and actually drag the braid through the work. The braid typically has enough flux to suck the solder along and moving the braid helps with getting that solder to flow nicely.

For sure, When working on tube amps I mostly use a chisel point tip which is flat on two sides, you hold the solder wick down with just enough presure to make it flow and as it flows you drag it through the flowing solder joint slowly. Works great just as Cliff says. Now on very tiny pc board joints I go to the very fine wick and use a much smaller tip.

[Cliff Schecht]

Also, a great trick with braid is to get the solder flowing and actually drag the braid through the work. The braid typically has enough flux to suck the solder along and moving the braid helps with getting that solder to flow nicely.

For sure, When working on tube amps I mostly use a chisel point tip which is flat on two sides, you hold the solder wick down with just enough presure to make it flow and as it flows you drag it through the flowing solder joint slowly. Works great just as Cliff says. Now on very tiny pc board joints I go to the very fine wick and use a much smaller tip.

Everything I do at work is 0603 or smaller. The only time I use the finest solder braid is with the 0201 stuff, or if I'm doing those annoying dual row QFN packages and have to wick up solder between two adjacent pads. The problem with bigger wick on smaller stuff is that it heats up the entire area too much and starts tearing off soldermask. Or if you happen to be particularly unlucky, you'll actually overheat the traces and ruin the epoxy bond (i.e. floating traces).

[PlinytheWelder]

I use this one a lot....
[img:345:235]http://rsk.imageg.net/graphics/product_ ... 44w345.jpg[/img]