Test Equipment Anonymous

Just stumbled upon this on the internet, very handy if you don't have a desoldering gun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vou2xlJkuoU

Yeah,this technique is pretty well-known; IIRC, I first saw it on the BadCaps forums decades ago. I save my used desoldering braid; it works a treat for this.

mnem
*tsssssssst...*

As he said, it has limitations.

Years back, I had to replace a RF rated relay in a FM transmitter exciter.
Only a few of the pins were for the contacts, coil, or to locate the device, the rest being used to connect an internal ground plane to that of the PCB.
All the usual ways to desolder it didn't work, nor would have this one, because of the multiplicity of pins.

The Boss placed his faith in a desolder station, so we purchased a nice PACE one, which also didn't work.
On closer inspection, I found that the "grounding" pins were quite thin, & there was a very small gap between the relay & board.
Enter the Stanley knife to save the day!

I cut off all the grounding pins, desoldered the others & removed the relay.
Removing the cut off bits was easy, but obviously the relay couldn't be reused-----a good thing because it was faulty, anyway.

I often salvage stuff from old boards, & the method in the video may mean I can save some bits I normally pass over as "too hard to bother".

Clever idea - shades of a custom version of the old DIP desoldering tips that heated all pins that used to be available back in the day.

-Pat

It looks like a handy technique and worth bearing in mind. It would be far more difficult if the pins were bent or a tight fit.

With desoldering a lot depends on whether you want to remove the part intact and/or whether you care whether you damage the board or not.

I picked up a scrap board recently with loads of little RF relays. I tried a desoldering station and wrecked a couple. The wire technique would have been better but time consuming. I used a paint stripping hot air gun to melt the solder, then tapped the board and they dropped out.

Very true - horses for courses. You need to tailor the removal method depending on the desired result - are you trying to save the part, or the board, or (perhaps) both?

I'd never seen it before, though now of course it makes perfect sense and seems like it should have been obvious. Definitely something to keep in your back pocket for when the need arises. Appreciate the link, Spec.

-Pat