Desoldering

Desoldering #

There are multiple different methods for desoldering. You will most likely use some combination of them depending on the context.

Wire - Wire Connection #

The easiest de-soldering one can do is detaching 2 wires from one another that have been soldered. The way to do this is to use the heat from the soldering iron to melt the solder on the wire. To make the transfer of heat better you can put a bit of fresh solder on the tip of the iron before you touch it to the solder joint. When you touch the solder joint, you can pull on one of the cables and it should come apart, or it will just spring apart on its own.

Wire - Board Connection #

The next de-soldering task is somewhat harder, removing a wire that is connected through the hole of a PCB or a perfboard can be quite difficult. The first step is to use the desoldering pump to take most of the solder away.

Desoldering Pump #

An image of a Desoldering Pump
  • Prepeare the pump by pressing the black plunger down until it clicks.
  • Heat the solder you would like to remove using the soldering iron.
  • Bring the pump close to the molten (liquid) solder and press the black button to trigger the suction blast.
  • The molten solder should now be in the pump, press the plunger down again to remove the solder.

Desoldering Wick #

An image of Desoldering Wick

Next we will move onto using Desoldering Wick to remove the rest of the solder.

  • Find a roll of Desoldering Wick in one of the K-Bins in G11.
  • Unroll about 5cm of the copper wick and trim off any that has solder on already.
  • Holding the blue plastic roll, place the wick over the solder you want to remove and press a hot soldering iron onto it.
  • Move the iron around a little and you should see the wick turn silver as it absorbs solder.
  • Move away the wick and then the iron so that the wick doesn’t get stuck to the part.
  • BEWARE THE WICK AND BOARD ARE NOW AS HOT AS THE IRON

If all the solder has been removed, you should now be able to remove the wire.

SMD De-Soldering (Reflow) #

We have some SMD Tools such as a hot plate and hot air gun. If you would like to use these tools, talk to a technician and we can set you up.