[Elecraft] De-soldering Tool Recommendations?

[jerry]

On 2022-03-14 15:35, Wayne Burdick wrote:
> The following is only tangentially related, but it has to be dusted
> off periodically:
> 
>     https://www.qsotoday.com/n6kr-desolder-primer.html

Cute.  If it's a  board I care about - say the motherboard of my K2 - I
would proceed directly to step 8 ( clip the part ).  Parts are cheap.  
Boards are expensive.

Back in the 70's I labored as a tech in a telephone equipment factory of 
a company that shall remain nameless ( Oh, all right, it was Northern 
Telecom ).

Us techs troubleshot, but all rework was done by the rework girls.  
Their station was in the middle of the test floor.  These ladies 
soldered and desoldered all day, and they were GOOD at it.  It was 
mostly DIP TTL chips, although there were some big LSI's.  They always 
started with step 8:  Clip-clip-clip-clip-TOSS.

   One of my fellow "techs"  ( I use the term advisedly ) had a unique 
technique for troubleshooting:
He would mark the first two rows of chips and have the ladies replace 
them.  If that didn't work, he
would mark the SECOND two rows of chips... etc.

   Another ( much smarter ) guy was troubleshooting one of the boards in 
the dog pile.  A +5-to-ground short.  No progress.  He came in one 
Saturday determined to conquer this thing no matter what.  He found a 
50A 5V supply and hooked it to the 5V and ground.  With 50A flowing 
through the board, he took a sensitive DVM and probed - one side on the 
+5, other side ground.  The spot with the lowest voltage was his short.  
What was it?  An EXTRA plated through hole.  I gained great respect for 
the conductive power
of those holes...

               - Jerry KF6VB







> 
> I wrote this long ago. Hopefully it's still as dubiously relevant as 
> ever.
> 
> Wayne
> N6KR
> 
> 
>>> On 2022-03-13 22:06, Tony wrote:
> 
>>>> All:
>>>> 
>>>> Can anyone recommend a budget de-soldering iron that can be used in
>>>> tight places? I need to remove a small component that has a few
>>>> surface mount devices close by so the iron would need to have a 
>>>> small
>>>> tip.
>>>> 
>>>> Also need advice on the best soldering iron to use for this type of
>>>> work as well as the best low-temp Rosin core solder to use.
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> 
>>>> Tony -K2MO
> 
> 
> 
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