Desoldering caps

[Rick Carson]

So today was the day I made a bad mistake and messed up a dynamics card. I'm feeling pretty awful about it. There were two caps that were pretty trouble some and I think this is where I fired the board. They looked like cold solder and were near impossible to heat up. Any tips on stopping this from happening/ who can I send this card to to get repaired?

[sintech]

Hi, Recapping is easier said than done. It'll be a mess if you don't have the correct tools/knowledge, boards with new caps but crappy traces will be a nightmare.

 A pro-rework station is top of the list, buy one from ebay, as they're super expensive new, and super cheap used. Got this for just £54:



You need to add more solder to the joint before thinking about any suction, SSL cards are fragile and the double sided holes the hardest to deal with.

Personally, I'd get any old junk PCB and practice removing parts and getting really clean results.

I can repair the Dynamics card for you.

[Rick Carson]

Sintech! Your a life saver I'd love to send my card to you for repair my email is Rick @ makebelievestudio .com email me with the cost and ill get it over.

I have been looking into a station since I posted. I have a nice welled iron. What temp is good to use for the Ssl PCB?

As far as desolder stations I have been looking at the hakku 808. Do you think is will work wel for my purposes? What make and model is yours?

[kilmister]

Can't recommend Hakko 808 for SSL repair works.
I bought one some years ago and found pretty soon it's quite easy to destroy PCB tracks with it. Main problem is a vacuum pump which generates quite a bit of vibration which conveys to the nozzle thus breaking PCB's. Few months ago I bought really nice Weller WMD 3 station, never going back Hakko again!
So I woukd recommend you to try to find a de-soldering station whrere vacuum pump is built in separate station just like in Sintech's picture.

-Paavo