One tip for removing things 2 pin parts like LED, capacitors is what I call the "gravity hand". A small pair or pliers with and elastic band on the handle allows it to grip the component and hang down from the board, as soon as you add heat, sometimes a little fresh solder to the upper side if the board, he weight of the pliers pulls the part out for you.
I'm pretty new to this whole maker/diy stuff, so I was fretting desoldering some header pins from a pi pico I had. After avoiding it for a few days, I watched this last night and found the whole process way easier. thanks so much.
You're doing it right!!. Good video, same technique I use with one exception. When heating the pin & solder, I keep the tweezer away from the pin otherwise, it acts as a heat-sink on the pin and I find it takes longer to melt the solder. I heat the pin first and at the last minute, I use the tweezer to remove the pin. Thank you for sharing your skills for others to learn.
This is a great technique. Also that solder sucker is the business! Well worth the additional cost over cheap ones One thing that is kind of counter intuitive that sometimes helps is that if the solder is not flowing right or you can't get it with the sucker, sometimes adding more solder to party. If will have fresh flux and will flow easier.
More solder also provides a thermal path from the iron to the remaining solder, which you might otherwise be unable to make decent contact with! :) And yes, that Engineer solder sucker is amazing. Silicone tip that can be in contact with a hot iron for moderately-extended periods without damage
"The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts." Good stuff! I hate presoldered headers because I usually want things very compact and connect things with solid-core wire so it holds its shape. Wick is good for this, too. Using a fine tip, you can push it into the holes.
That's a really great tip. I have tried to do this but didn't think of removing the plastic connector off of the pins first. That is the trick that you need for this. Thanks for sharing.
Good tip! After many breakouts and prototypes, I've found that individual PCB-wire connections are pretty troublesome as they make enclosures very tangly and hard to work in. Most often I'd much rather keep the headers, make an IDC cable of the same pitch (sometimes easier to use every other wire of a denser ribbon cable) or just split some ribbon cable and solder on a socket to match.
Stumbled onto the channel by chance from the Adafruit Sliding Camera thingy video, and I find the solution to my (now in retrospect very easily solvable) issue of desoldering them dang headers without a heat gun. Yay for complicating simplicity!
Thanks for covering desoldering. I'm a decent solderer, but I'm very bad at desoldering. One of the things that is making it easier for me, is not using helping hands but a vise like the one you have. Another thing is moving from my soldering station (very much like yours) to a tiny soldering TS-100 clone from Pine64 called the Pinecil, and that as an extra, has a RISC-V chip on it. It has a "boost" function that allows to get the soldering iron to 400C in just seconds, as it's more efficient and has less weight than my "normal" soldering station. Love the pinecil.
For short boards I have this special tip that's 1 inch wide. It looks ridiculous. But it allows you to heat up an entire row at once and even reuse the headers.
Hi Ref. Phei's comment -- i have a bit ( infact 2 ) made for Antex Soldering Irons ( perhaps other makers sell similar ? ) that can be used to remove a DIL IC ( or a DIL IC Socket ) . I cut one so its good for Single In Line devices etc where there may not be space to use the DIL tool . Alan
Itstead of clunky solder pump just use a toothpick with a bit of gel flux on the end to stick into heated pad and leave there until cooled. Wood makes wonders here, it does not stick, melt, or burn easily (with the right amount of flux) and it is a lot faster this way.
I have a neat tool that combines a cheap manual solder sucker with a cheap 240V soldering iron. No, of course it's not nearly as good as a full desoldering pump, but I seem to recall paying only _£5_ (US$6~7) for it, from Amazon UK with next-day Prime shipping, and it's definitely worth much more than that! Especially since it came with a decent-quality UK mains plug and flex attached (it was even earthed, IIRC) rather than the "single strand of aluminium" style of cable you'd kind of expect from something like that. If you can afford and justify a proper pump, that's the better option, but if you can't, this thing can be a handy upgrade if you can find it cheap enough. I just wish it had the same silicone tip of the Engineer solder sucker! :( (I tried fitting some spare Engineer silicone tip refill to that heated solder sucker, but the constant high temperature kills the silicone extremely quickly ☹️)
I never knew about removing the plastic bit, so you've changed my life.
it really is life changing haha
One tip for removing things 2 pin parts like LED, capacitors is what I call the "gravity hand".
A small pair or pliers with and elastic band on the handle allows it to grip the component and hang down from the board, as soon as you add heat, sometimes a little fresh solder to the upper side if the board, he weight of the pliers pulls the part out for you.
oh cool, great tip!
@@BlitzCityDIY glad you like it, it has saved me so many headaches, with enough fresh solder it can work in 3 pin devices like regulators too.
This is exactly the technique I’ve been using for a few years now.
sweet!
I'm pretty new to this whole maker/diy stuff, so I was fretting desoldering some header pins from a pi pico I had. After avoiding it for a few days, I watched this last night and found the whole process way easier. thanks so much.
fantastic! glad this was helpful
You're doing it right!!. Good video, same technique I use with one exception. When heating the pin & solder, I keep the tweezer away from the pin otherwise, it acts as a heat-sink on the pin and I find it takes longer to melt the solder. I heat the pin first and at the last minute, I use the tweezer to remove the pin. Thank you for sharing your skills for others to learn.
ohhh that's a great tip! i'll have to remember that
This is a great technique. Also that solder sucker is the business! Well worth the additional cost over cheap ones
One thing that is kind of counter intuitive that sometimes helps is that if the solder is not flowing right or you can't get it with the sucker, sometimes adding more solder to party. If will have fresh flux and will flow easier.
Yesss that definitely helps out!
More solder also provides a thermal path from the iron to the remaining solder, which you might otherwise be unable to make decent contact with! :)
And yes, that Engineer solder sucker is amazing. Silicone tip that can be in contact with a hot iron for moderately-extended periods without damage
"The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts."
Good stuff! I hate presoldered headers because I usually want things very compact and connect things with solid-core wire so it holds its shape.
Wick is good for this, too. Using a fine tip, you can push it into the holes.
same, i like things to be as compact as possible. i'll have to try it with wick too
That's a really great tip. I have tried to do this but didn't think of removing the plastic connector off of the pins first. That is the trick that you need for this. Thanks for sharing.
Good tip! After many breakouts and prototypes, I've found that individual PCB-wire connections are pretty troublesome as they make enclosures very tangly and hard to work in. Most often I'd much rather keep the headers, make an IDC cable of the same pitch (sometimes easier to use every other wire of a denser ribbon cable) or just split some ribbon cable and solder on a socket to match.
fair, that can also be effective
Stumbled onto the channel by chance from the Adafruit Sliding Camera thingy video, and I find the solution to my (now in retrospect very easily solvable) issue of desoldering them dang headers without a heat gun. Yay for complicating simplicity!
You've saved me a lot of frustration! Thanks
Thanks for covering desoldering. I'm a decent solderer, but I'm very bad at desoldering. One of the things that is making it easier for me, is not using helping hands but a vise like the one you have.
Another thing is moving from my soldering station (very much like yours) to a tiny soldering TS-100 clone from Pine64 called the Pinecil, and that as an extra, has a RISC-V chip on it. It has a "boost" function that allows to get the soldering iron to 400C in just seconds, as it's more efficient and has less weight than my "normal" soldering station. Love the pinecil.
oh sweet, i've heard about the pinecil.
For short boards I have this special tip that's 1 inch wide. It looks ridiculous. But it allows you to heat up an entire row at once and even reuse the headers.
oh sweet! that sounds awesome
Before moving into a prototyping career, I worked in assembly, this is the easiest way to get headers out.
sweet!
Techspray solder wick is really good stuff, the no clean is what I've used but the pro with proper flux might be even better.
nice, i'll have to try that
God dammit, it's such an obvious thing to do, but I've gone through de-soldering hell anyways.. ):
lolol that's how i felt the first time they slipped off after a particularly long de-soldering attempt
Hi Ref. Phei's comment -- i have a bit ( infact 2 ) made for Antex Soldering Irons ( perhaps other makers sell similar ? )
that can be used to remove a DIL IC ( or a DIL IC Socket ) . I cut one so its good for Single In Line devices etc where there may
not be space to use the DIL tool .
Alan
nice!
Itstead of clunky solder pump just use a toothpick with a bit of gel flux on the end to stick into heated pad and leave there until cooled.
Wood makes wonders here, it does not stick, melt, or burn easily (with the right amount of flux) and it is a lot faster this way.
Great Tips! Thanks
you're welcome!
Desoldering copper are also good in this case..
yes, Collin actually uses that in his demo
Desolderingguns are nice.
indeed!
I have a neat tool that combines a cheap manual solder sucker with a cheap 240V soldering iron.
No, of course it's not nearly as good as a full desoldering pump, but I seem to recall paying only _£5_ (US$6~7) for it, from Amazon UK with next-day Prime shipping, and it's definitely worth much more than that!
Especially since it came with a decent-quality UK mains plug and flex attached (it was even earthed, IIRC) rather than the "single strand of aluminium" style of cable you'd kind of expect from something like that.
If you can afford and justify a proper pump, that's the better option, but if you can't, this thing can be a handy upgrade if you can find it cheap enough.
I just wish it had the same silicone tip of the Engineer solder sucker! :(
(I tried fitting some spare Engineer silicone tip refill to that heated solder sucker, but the constant high temperature kills the silicone extremely quickly ☹️)
Thanks for the tip
people here from digikey
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