I'm trying to desolder a number of joints on an electric toothbrush and not having much luck with braid. It seems to be wicking only a tiny amount of solder with each application.
Ever in mind of tooling up in situations like this, might one of these work well:
The braid may be dry. Smear some flux on it, lead free plumber's flux is good for this. The difference is dramatic.
Cheers
+1 though make sure any flux is thoroughly removed afterwards.
Solder suckers are good for removing large blobs of loose molten solder.
Solder braid is good for removing small amounts of solder from specific places (eg the short between two SMD pins), or solder which has a large contact area with other metal so that it 'clings' to the surface. Flux is required, and the weave can vary (tigher weave = more precision but less solder carried)
Horses for courses. I'd say it's useful to have both in your toolbox.
I've never used a sucker with inbuilt iron before, but at that price I imagine it could come in handy. Otherwise the PTFE tip of a 'passive' sucker always goes a bit mangy after a while.
Theo
The trick often is to use lead/tin solder with a flux/rosin core and resolder the joint first. During manufacture the flux is removed so resoldering puts some back and allows the solder to flow.
If its wires to terminals I doubt if wick or a solder pump is ideal. I would heat the joint and physically pull the wires - and then use the wick to clean up the terminals.
Agreed, but they are violent to the PCB and I've detached too many tracks and vias from the PCB.
For big joints you just need bigger/wider braid or use more braid and have patience!
I dislike suckers as it's often easier to desolder a join when there's plenty of solder present. A sucker can clean it up afterwards, but they're a pain too often.
Desoldering wick is wasteful. Just melt the joint & remove the part works in most cases. Or heat joints together or in succession, bending the part over. etc etc.
NT
Solder wick is most useful for clearing holues in a PCB when you subsequently need to insert a multilegged beast.
They do work best if there is something to suck adding a bit more helps as does making sure there is flux present.
I've only done that when over heating things trying to get too small amount of poorly fluxed solder to flow. The simple pump action solder sucker works for me, just bought a Duratool metal bodied one from Farnell for a fiver (312-5634). My old one had a missing plunger guard so quite a risk of taking an eye out. The tip was well formed by use to allow it close up against the joint along with the iron tip. I'll have to see if the old tip will fit the new pump as it's much better at sucking.
Braid I've never had much success with but reading comments here it might down to "dry" braid, so not enough flux.
I haven't seen many multi-legged through hole beasts in recent times!
I vacuumed one up just yesterday
Along with all the good and valid advice already given so far ... and depending on your budget, I can't recommend one of the following highly enough.
(I used mine earlier today in fact)
Temperature adjustable (set / current) with enough power to heat even fairly heavy joints / areas.
No 'recoil' (as mentioned elsewhere, like the manual pump type (that I used every day for years when with BT)) that can damage / lift smaller tracks.
Quite a large capacity and a 'window' so you can see when it needs emptying (like a Dyson). ;-)
Spare parts are available.
I think a problem on finer stuff may be de soldering more than the one pin but it's easier to re-solder than de-solder. ;-)
That tool makes doing things like replacing laptop power or USB sockets a breeze, one of those 'I don't know how I managed without it' type tools (for me anyway, YMMV). ;-)
Cheers, T i m
i saw this whilst working out what to do with my daughters phone
I was talking about through hole components!
When taking components like that off, I would mask the outside area with silver foil and use a hot air gun with a vacuum component sucker at the ready.
I must admit I haven't considered, or seen the use of low melting point solder[1] to help component removal. His use of 320C air is what I would use to melt lead free solder. It would still melt adjacent plastic components. I wasn't impressed how he left the pads still with loads of solder. Perhaps I'm more generous with the braid and trim the end full of solder more often.
[1] Roses metal sounds a good bet.
We've always put a bit of rubber pipe on it.
Andy
All down to personal preference. I seldom use it. So I suppose the OP should try the various options ideally. I mostly use a soldering iron or hot air.
NT
I'd not be without my Pace desolder set. Basically, an iron with a hole down the middle of the bit connected to a vacuum pump. Invaluable if you do a lot. Think there are quite cheap ones available these days.
Have one, worked at first but when I tried to use it a month later it did not.
Which is what most people do, but the problem is components with many legs which is why the sucker or wick.
Or heat joints together or in succession, bending the part over. etc etc.
Many thanks everyone - plenty to go on there. I'll start with the wick-fluxing and see where that gets me.
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