[Test-Equipment] Unsoldering

[Rasputin Novgorod]

Sorry, here goes another off-topic message.

I'm an electronic hobbyist with some nice, if old,
HP test gear. A electronics service tech friend gives
me dead and abandoned old electronics, which I like
to disassemble for the parts. I only go after the interesting,
expensive or rare parts; most new electronics parts
are so cheap now that they aren't worth the effort.

This works fine for single-sided pc boards, but I 
find it impossible to remove parts from double-sided
plated thru holes w/o distroying everything. I've tried
solder suckers, braid, fancy vacuum pump irons, etc,
but it is very difficult to get those plated-thru holes
clean.

I've found it helps to use a big iron, 80 watts, to dump a lot
of heat quickly and pop out the part. Smaller irons seem
to just burnup the board w/o melting the solder. I can get out
resistors and caps, but IC's are impossible. I've rescued
some IC's (expensive ones that are worth the effort) by 
cutting the board with tin snips close to the pins 
and removing pins one by one.

So, any suggestions for salvaging parts from double sided PCs?

Sincerely
Blair


		
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