Desolder SMD ICs
Here is another tutorial for desoldering SMD ICs. You can remove an SMD IC without damaging it or the PCB using a bent piece of copper wire and a soldering iron.
Via the contact form.
This entry was posted in how-to and tagged desolder, SMD.
Comments
That is very clever, will definitely keep this one in mind, I’m sure it’ll come very handy some day!
Why didn’t I think anything like that?
That’ simply genius :)
Neat way to unsolder that!
Great idea!
I tried this a year or two ago, and I did not have much success. A few things though, do not use thin copper wire as it will not work. You need a lot of contact area between the iron and the copper wire, hence him using such a tip. This means you need a iron capable of pumping out a reasonable amount of heat, of which most of us do not have.
Though, this is still an awesome idea regardless! :P
If you use lots of solder to add thermal mass you can use a thinner copper wire. You can even use to pull the chip away as the wire isn’t very hot (compared to this thick one :D)
I used this method before getting a hotair. IMO my best investment in tools for years!
use a lighter or small blowtorch to heat the wire instead of a beefy soldering iron. Maybe you can even heat the wire up on the stove first then apply it. Remember to use plenty of flux,
Nice,
Very simple and straight forward technique!
Great idea.
I used a #12 AWG gage wire, with a 60 watt pencil iron.
To increase surface, I flattened the wire in a bench press, and leveled with a hammer and some sanding to forma an “square” wire; with it, I was able to remove the IC effortlessly, but it didn’t remove as much solder so I have to later clean the IC leads by hand.
Then I tried the round wire and that did the trick, the round profile absorbed much of the solder by capillarity and the leads were clean.
For both runs, I used the iron itself to clean the PCB.
As it has mentioned, use a lot of flux, but be carefull to remove it clean afterwards.