Desolder equipment recommendations.

[+dhe]

SOOOO Many years. Most of my soldering stuff was obtained from Radio Shack in the 70's and 80's.

 

I did, in the late 90's, on Tim Tesch recommendation, order a temperature controlled soldering iron.

 

For desoldering I've depended on a RS Soldering IRON with a bulb and a RS plunger style de solder - and of course braid to clean up through holes.

 

So I've noticed on some more modern you tube channels, people de soldering with a gun type arrangement. Can any one make a recommendation for or against soldering guns and if for, which one they recommend?

 

Thanks,

Dano

 

When I moved to FL the town I'm in had two Radio Shacks, an two electronics parts houses (Skippers and Electronics Plus) and Hank's Electronics Repair. Now, they are all gone... =(

[+arcadeshopper]

SOOOO Many years. Most of my soldering stuff was obtained from Radio Shack in the 70's and 80's.
 
I did, in the late 90's, on Tim Tesch recommendation, order a temperature controlled soldering iron.
 
For desoldering I've depended on a RS Soldering IRON with a bulb and a RS plunger style de solder - and of course braid to clean up through holes.
 
So I've noticed on some more modern you tube channels, people de soldering with a gun type arrangement. Can any one make a recommendation for or against soldering guns and if for, which one they recommend?
 
Thanks,
Dano
 
When I moved to FL the town I'm in had two Radio Shacks, an two electronics parts houses (Skippers and Electronics Plus) and Hank's Electronics Repair. Now, they are all gone... =(

I have this. It makes desolder easy.

Sent from my LM-G820 using Tapatalk

[+FarmerPotato]

8 hours ago, arcadeshopper said:

I have this. It makes desolder easy.

 

 

 

I second arcadeshopper's Hakko.  In the past I have bought a FR-300 for myself and others. The current model is FR-301.

 

You can get a deal here: https://www.tequipment.net/search/?F_Keyword=hakko fr-301

The extra nozzles are nice, but you can get working with the basic kit. You'll need to buy some more consumables though.

 

I got a deal they used to have on an FR-300 desoldering + FX-888 soldering.

There are usually deals for 11% off list price of Hakko stuff. Fry's used to have them on the shelf.

 

There are more sophisticated ones out there, but the Hakko is the most affordable and a breeze to work with. 

Oh yeah, don't bother with the cheap knockoffs. The Hakko will last a long time if you take care to clean it.

 

 

[matthew180]

#1 rule for rework: Desoldering is twice as hard as soldering.

 

The vacuum-powered desolder tools are generally well worth the money if you use them enough (which is what makes their high cost a hard decision to make for a hobbyist).  Like arcadeshopper, I spent the money on a Hakko FR-300 some years ago, and I'm very glad to have it for DIP rework.  But it is a single-task tool, so for me it does not get used much.  I also find that you have to be very careful with it since it gets very hot and can easily dump too much heat into a pad and even damage the PCB substrate.

 

The more professional vacuum stations are the next step up from the hand-held ones.  Going the in the cheaper direction are the manual pumps and the heated gizmos with the air-bulb on them, both of which I have used, and neither of which I would recommend.

 

A good hot-air rework station will go a long way these days.  Also, ChipQuik.

 

The #2 rule of rework: keep everything (tips, surfaces, parts, etc.) clean and use a good no-clean flux!

[+dhe]

Ok, I bit the big one and got a FR-300. Now, for you folks with actual experience, what tip do you use on most TI Equipment?