[Elecraft] Absolutely positively the BEST way to strip toroid leads

[Tom Hammond NØSS]

Hi Don:

At 08:42 AM 6/30/02, Don Brown wrote:
>I had taken a break from building a KPA100 and when I came back to it my 
>WES-50 soldering station had turned itself off. While it was reheating I 
>picked my Hakko desoldering gun and slipped the toroid lead up into the 
>nozzle and applied a little solder. After about 10 seconds I hit the 
>suction switch and removed the torroid lead. I was amazed the lead was 
>perfectly clean with just the slightest coating of solder right up to the 
>core. There was no black residue, no excess solder and no damage to the 
>core or windings. I did this on several more toroids and it works every 
>time and it is fast. I can wind, strip and install a toroid in 1 to 2 
>minutes using this method. Clip the leads to about 3/4 to 1 in before you 
>insert them into the desoldering station nozzle and run the nozzle right 
>up next to the core. Apply a little solder wait a few seconds, suck the 
>excess solder off and remove the lead.

Good posting, Don. I believe this method was first posted by either Bob 
Friess N6CM, or John Grebenkemper, KI6WX, about a month or so ago... and it 
IS worth posting again. And yes, it is probably the one of the very methods 
of stripping toroid leads. Possibly even better than a solder pot.

Unfortunately, the cost of the Hakko desoldering stations or the model 808 
desoldering gun is a bit steep merely to be used a a stripper... <G>  Even 
a personal solder pot would be more economical if ONLY leads were to be 
stripped.

This having been said, I must say that the Hakko 808 desoldering gun, even 
though it sells for about $180 (if I recall) has most DEFINITELY one of the 
very BEST investments I've ever made in bench/assembly/DISassembly tools. 
The 808 allows me to be able to desolder and remove devices from a PC board 
without having to worry about damaging PC board lands and traces.

It used to be that I had to either use desoldering braid, or one of several 
available solder suckers, in my efforts to remove components from a board. 
Unfortunately, using those devices, I sometimes found that I'd left the 
heat applied to the PC board for too long a time (often for 5-8 seconds), 
and that I'd managed to 'lift' a pad or a portion of a long... or both, in 
my efforts to only remove a component lead. THEN, I had to work very 
(extremely) carefully in order to reattach the new component AND to get 
whatever was left of the lifted copper reattached to the component lead.

With the desoldering gun (and there are a number of good models out there, 
at a variety of prices, Hakko's is not the only good one available) I can 
now generally remove ALL of the solder in a plated-thru hole in no more 
than 1-2 seconds. Additionally, more often then not, when the last lead 
hole has been cleared, chances are the the component will FALL out onto the 
desktop, without any further urging from me...!

Finally, I've found that Hakko offers a number of different desoldering 
tool tips as well. I really enjoy using their tip #A1394 which has a really 
long, slender snoot on it... .434" long and only .090" outside diameter. 
I've found this tip to be invaluable when working on some of the more 
'crowded' PC boards in the K2, especially the KSB2 board, where components 
are quite tightly packed. This tip allows me to desolder bottom-mounted 
components, going in from the top side of the board, without overheating 
adjacent top-mounted components.

What I'm trying to do here is to urge some builders to invest in a decent 
desoldering gun (or station). It will not be low cost, but if you do much 
PC board building and REWORKING of existing PC boards, you will find that 
it is worth every buck you invested.

I have NO interest whatsoever in ANY company manufacturing (or 
selling)  soldering or desoldering equipment, including Hakko.

73,

Tom Hammond