Use desolder tool

If you don't have one of those though, here's how you can use a heat gun to desolder components:. Tip: You only need to heat gun the board for a few seconds, or else you will melt the copper plating on the PCB and damage the board, as shown in the picture.

Pros: Simple and quick way to get a component out of a PCB without a soldering iron. The components may be reused, depending on the damage done. Cons: It can get very, very hot. The board itself heats up pretty quickly, and you can damage it or your fingers pretty badly if you aren't careful.

If you don't have access to some of the tools I mentioned previously, there are a couple other neat ways to remove components if you desperately need them, and using a compressed air can is one of them.

You can use it to remove solder from your component by simply blasting molten solder away. Here's how:. This method sends chunks of molten solder flying everywhere. Once the solder is molten, get the nose of the compressed air can or gun up close to the joint. Tip: Because the air can is pretty powerful, you can heat up solder stuck in pin holes and blast it out. Pros: It's fun, messy, quick, and who doesn't love playing with compressed air?

Also, the removed components can be reused. Cons: It's messy, so solder may get all over your workspace and circuit board if you aren't careful with your aim. This is why you need safety glasses. Don't have access to a soldering iron? That's ok!

You can use a compressed air in another neat but more aggressive way to remove soldered components. When you turn a compressed air can upside-down, it sprays out a freezing cold liquid solvent.

This super-cools the solder, making it extremely brittle. Spray it against the joints. Parts of the board top and bottom will turn while, but after a few seconds it will return to normal. Tip: If you don't have pliers, you can knock the components off using the edge of a table. Pros: You don't need a soldering iron, and you get to see what happens when you turn an air can upside-down!

This process is also the only one that isn't very hot. Desoldering can be pretty tricky business, and many people have come up with their own techniques to cleanly removing their components from a circuit board. This instructable only covered how to remove through-hole components, but there are many other ways to desolder other types of circuits. If you have any other desoldering methods you'd like to share, please add them in the comments!

I am a pretty experienced when it comes to soldering and de-soldering. You end up breaking the actual copper pads rendering the PCB destroyed. Or the pump solder sucker breaks which happens a lot with me. You can buy tips for the heat guns to change shapes and reduce size. I like to use and adapter that has a 3mm dia adapter on that. One way to clean boards from residual solder is to heat the board until the solder turns liquid and quickly wipe the board with a cloth.

I was removing a few components yesterday and couldn't find my pump. After the components were removed the holes had some solder in so I couldn't replace them so I got a safety pin, heated the hole and pushed the pin through wiggling it as the solder set.

Result- holes for the replacement parts. If you do this try use a safety pin- they're longer than pins or needles so you're less likely to get burned. Also the metal is much more ductile so will bend rather than snap and splinter. Reply 6 years ago on Introduction. A splinter from a toothpick works well. Solder can't stick to it, it doesn't sink away much heat.

Yes,but that only works on the larger leads- they are too big for low wattage resistors etc where they don't pass fully though the hole. I use this method most often, but only when the board is not going to be kept. Sometimes it's better to remove some of the more sensitive components provided you want to salvage them using a more precise method.

Similar to this method, I've used an electric griddle with less destructive success. Not really serve, grab some tweezers or needle nose pliers and start plucking parts off.

Just like with the heat gun you have a very small window from "just hot enough to pull parts in tact" to "solder soup garnished with plastic lumps". Best to be expedient in other words. Thanks for the detailed explanations of each method. I have used all these methods in the past when I was a repair technician, except the compressed air blowing method.

We did have a compressed air desoldering tool, but it sucked the solder instead of blowing it. My advice would be to avoid this blowing method. Besides the danger of flying molten lead, on a populated board, it can cause hairline shorts. If you don't locate and clear them, you have another round of fault-finding to do. Your moving clip clearly shows how far the solder flies and how fine the solder strands are. I got this from a visiting Japanese technician.

He always had a couple of bamboo sticks on his workbench. He used the pointed tip for cleaning out the flux and checking for solder bridges after soldering, without scratching the board.

He also used it for clearing the holes after desoldering. I improved on the bamboo stick by filing a wedge at the other end. They are also my go-to tool for removing solder out of through-holes. They are less useful when working on hard to reach areas.

This is because despite the nozzle being small, the body of the solder sucker itself is rather large. Using them for surface mount work is also not recommended, because of the risk of sucking up small components. A hot air rework station is a tool that uses hot air to solder or desolder electronic components. Its temperature and airflow can usually be regulated to get ideal results. Most units come with swappable nozzles that allow airflow to be directed over a certain surface area.

Hot air rework stations use an air pump to pump air through a hose. The end of the hose has a handle with a nozzle and a heater element. The nozzle directs the air towards the location it is pointing at, while the heater element heats the air up to a user-set temperature. Before getting started, mount the right sized nozzle on the outlet of the rework station. Small nozzles are generally preferred for heating up small areas and components, and vice versa for large nozzles.

Turn the rework station on and set the preferred temperature on the base unit. Set the desired airflow on the rework station base unit.

When you deal with large components or large ground planes, you want more airflow. When dealing with small SMD components however, especially many that are located close next to each other, you want to limit the airflow to prevent the small components from flying away.

Apply flux to the solder joints of the component you want to desolder. Aim the nozzle of the rework station at the pins of the component. Move the nozzle in circular motions to evenly heat the pins. Remove the component with tweezers once the solder starts to appear shiny.

Shiny solder indicates that the solder has molten. If you plan on soldering a new component to the empty solder pads, clean them first. A hot air rework station is one of the best tools for desoldering SMD components, but it also works well for through-hole parts. A rework station can also be used for soldering SMD parts, but if you plan on soldering a lot of them it will be more economical to use a reflow oven instead. While it is possible to use a heat gun or hot air gun for desoldering, the results often leave much to be desired.

Heat guns have inaccurate temperature control, too much air flow and heat too large of an area. The only thing they have going for them compared to hot air rework stations is their low cost. If we think of a hot air rework station as a scalpel, then a heat gun can be thought of as a hacksaw.

When working on SMD components or any electronic parts that we want to reuse, we need to make sure that we are using a scalpel. Make sure to check the reviews of the specific unit first though, as they can be hit or miss. Once you are ready to upgrade, or if you have a bit more to invest in a hot air rework station that will last for years, I recommend the Quick DW. This is the rework station that I use myself.

A desoldering gun can be best thought of as a combination of a soldering iron and a desolder pump. It has the ability to melt solder and to immediately suck the solder away from the circuit board. Instead of a manual plunger system, like with a desoldering pump, it uses an electric vacuum pump to create a vacuum. The front of the desoldering gun has a nozzle that heats up because of a heating element. Bringing the nozzle into contact with a solder joint melts the solder.

The desoldering gun has a trigger that when pressed, activates a vacuum pump that sucks the molten solder away through the nozzle.

A desoldering gun is most useful when you need to desolder a large number of through hole components, and using solder wick or a desoldering pump would cost too much time. Just like a desoldering pump, a desoldering gun should also not be used for small SMD components, due to the risk of sucking them up.

Soldering guns run electrical current through a wire to generate heat. This can cause the wire to carry a stray voltage that can damage your circuits and components. In addition, ESD-sensitive components can get damaged by the electromagnetic spike that is generated when triggering the soldering gun.

Desoldering tweezers also known as hot tweezers are a tool used for desoldering small components with two poles, like SMD diodes, resistors and capacitors. By manually adjusting the distance between the two heated tips of the desoldering tweezers, it is possible to melt solder in the exact places you want. They can also be used to immediately pick up and remove the desoldered parts.

The ends of desoldering tweezers are basically two very small soldering irons with precision tips. The user can adjust the width between them in order to match it to the width between two solder joints. Desoldering tweezers show their strength when you want to quickly desolder SMD components with two poles, such as SMD diodes, resistors and capacitors. Desoldering tweezers are often sold as an extra accessory for specific soldering stations. Aside from using one or more tools specifically designed for desoldering, it is also possible to desolder with just a soldering iron.

Keeping all solder molten without removing it is tricky to do and comes with the risk of overheating and damaging components. You can also easily overheat solder pads and inadvertently damage or pull them from the circuit board. The Hakko FXD is a great value digital soldering iron that allows you to store and access the temperatures that you often solder and desolder at.

Chip Quik removal alloy is an alloy that you can melt and mix with existing solder on the pins of a component. It significantly lowers the melting temperature of the solder and keeps it molten longer.

Chip Quik allows you to easily remove SMD components without damage with a soldering iron, instead of with a hot air rework station. Mixing it with the solder already present on the solder joints creates a mixture that has a low melting point. Chip Quik is best for when you need to remove large surface mount components like ICs , that otherwise would need a lot of continuous heat applied to keep the solder on all pins molten. It also gives you the opportunity to remove SMD components with a soldering iron instead of a hot air rework station.

If you are planning on soldering new components after desoldering, it is important to first clean your circuit board and its solder pads. This means removing any leftover solder and flux residue. If you skip this step, it can be tricky to solder a new component to the solder pads with a good connection. Cleaning a PCB after desoldering is relatively simple and can be done with desoldering braid and a flux removal solution.

This method can be used for checking the calculated parameters. On the picture is my heater. Coiled on 3mm drill borer and extended to desired length. Finished heater must be somehow isolated from metal housing. I have used ceramic insulators removed from old baking oven heater. If you don't have insulators buy them in repair shop for kitchen appliances. Can from beginning of text somehow must be attached to housing, for that purpose main is drilled through middle and PCB spacer is attached to can with screw.

Plain screw with few nuts can be used. Screws with nuts are used for "legs" of device, and ceramic connection block is mounted to hold outlets of heater. Short video samples of device in use: Video 1 x, I made this,just took a shortcut and placed the can on top of a small propane burner,skipping your heater part. The can melts the tin,but when I tried it yesterday,I did not manage to get any componentes free even after an extended "dip" in the melted tin.

Any clues why? I placed the part of the bord where the component was on top of and in contact with the molten tin and tried to pull the component off with a plier. No luck even after leaving it there for 10sek it was a switch I just tested with,so I didn't care if I killed it Question though, would just a regular stove burner element and a pan work?

I know lead is not a good thing to have in your system. Isn't that the most dangerous part? Reply 8 years ago on Introduction. Sweet idea!

This is how PCB circuits are actually soldered. All of the components are placed on the board, then it skims across a bath of solder to quickly solder up all the components. I like how this concept is made into a way to de solder. Reply 10 years ago on Introduction. Reply 9 years ago on Introduction. Every semiconductor ever made can be destroyed by heat.

The typical rating is C for 10 seconds. Notice that the time the heat is applied is a factor. The component would probably be much better off at C for 2 seconds too.