solder won't come out of hole

[Tom Del Rosso]

For the past couple of hours I've been trying to get the solder out of a
hole. It's a mobo cap, and the other hole sucked right out. It's like an
obstruction. The solder melts with difficulty, but even then I can't get a
dental pick as deep as in the other hole. The cap pulled out easily on both
leads.


--

Reply in group, but if emailing add one more
zero, and remove the last word.

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Tue, 17 Jul 2012 15:53:01 -0400, "Tom Del Rosso"
<td_03@verizon.net.invalid> wrote:

For the past couple of hours I've been trying to get the solder out of a
hole. It's a mobo cap, and the other hole sucked right out. It's like an
obstruction. The solder melts with difficulty, but even then I can't get a
dental pick as deep as in the other hole. The cap pulled out easily on both
leads.

Probably a multilayer board with a big ground plane acting as a heat
sink.

Find some compressed air and a cardboard box.
Get the solder melted with a soldering iron. Use flux.
Point the back side of the PCB towards the cardboard box.
Heat the back side of the PCB with the soldering iron.
Apply the compressed air nozzle to the circuit side.
Remove the soldering iron and very quickly blow some compressed air
through the hold. The dross should land inside the cardboard box.

Also, pointed dental picks don't work well because there's too much
room for the solder in the hole with the tapered tip. Use a paper
clip or stainless piece of wire instead.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

 

[Ian Field]

"Tom Del Rosso" wrote in message news:ju4g3k$l19$1@dont-email.me...


For the past couple of hours I've been trying to get the solder out of a
hole. It's a mobo cap, and the other hole sucked right out. It's like an
obstruction. The solder melts with difficulty, but even then I can't get a
dental pick as deep as in the other hole. The cap pulled out easily on both
leads.

***Start by flowing in some 60/40 - at least if you can attack it at a lower
temperature, it'll take longer to cook the copper/pcb bond.

***If you're using a solder sucker, putting the nozzle off center on the
hole can sometimes draw molten solder out the top of a blocked hole - you
need to do both sides before attacking the blockage.

***Resist the temptation to force a pin through while heating the solder -
almost always takes the through plating with it.

 

On Tue, 17 Jul 2012 15:53:01 -0400, "Tom Del Rosso"
<td_03@verizon.net.invalid> wrote:

For the past couple of hours I've been trying to get the solder out of a
hole. It's a mobo cap, and the other hole sucked right out. It's like an
obstruction. The solder melts with difficulty, but even then I can't get a
dental pick as deep as in the other hole. The cap pulled out easily on both
leads.

A Solder Sucker is much better than a dental pick (I've used both).
The solder sucker can be used on one side of the board while the iron
is still on the pad on the other side of the board, which is when the
solder is at its most liquid state.

 

[Cydrome Leader]

Tom Del Rosso <td_03@verizon.net.invalid> wrote:

For the past couple of hours I've been trying to get the solder out of a
hole. It's a mobo cap, and the other hole sucked right out. It's like an
obstruction. The solder melts with difficulty, but even then I can't get a
dental pick as deep as in the other hole. The cap pulled out easily on both
leads.

add fress solder and try again.

burned up and oxidized tips and traces don't conduct heat well and won't
melt solder in a thick or multilayer board. get some solder wick, the
stuff is magic for things like this.

 

[mike]

On 7/17/2012 1:05 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

On Tue, 17 Jul 2012 15:53:01 -0400, "Tom Del Rosso"
td_03@verizon.net.invalid> wrote:

For the past couple of hours I've been trying to get the solder out of a
hole. It's a mobo cap, and the other hole sucked right out. It's like an
obstruction. The solder melts with difficulty, but even then I can't get a
dental pick as deep as in the other hole. The cap pulled out easily on both
leads.

Probably a multilayer board with a big ground plane acting as a heat
sink.

You left out the MOST IMPORTANT first step!!!

Wear eye protection!!!
Compressed air and molten solder is a recipe for blindness!!

Find some compressed air and a cardboard box.
Get the solder melted with a soldering iron. Use flux.
Point the back side of the PCB towards the cardboard box.
Heat the back side of the PCB with the soldering iron.
Apply the compressed air nozzle to the circuit side.
Remove the soldering iron and very quickly blow some compressed air
through the hold. The dross should land inside the cardboard box.

Also, pointed dental picks don't work well because there's too much
room for the solder in the hole with the tapered tip. Use a paper
clip or stainless piece of wire instead.

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Tue, 17 Jul 2012 15:37:31 -0700, mike <spamme9@gmail.com> wrote:

You left out the MOST IMPORTANT first step!!!
Wear eye protection!!!
Compressed air and molten solder is a recipe for blindness!!

Thanks. Y'er right. Goggles or a face mask are a must.

Back in the days when it was worth the effort, I used to remove
components from a PCB by clamping one end of the board in a bench vise
and heating the solder side with a propane torch. When the solder was
good and hot, I would pull the board back and let go. The components
and the solder would go flying in the opposite direction into a
cardboard box. I always wore a face mask, but still managed to burn
myself in obscure places.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

 

[John Robertson]

mike wrote:

On 7/17/2012 1:05 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Tue, 17 Jul 2012 15:53:01 -0400, "Tom Del Rosso"
td_03@verizon.net.invalid> wrote:

For the past couple of hours I've been trying to get the solder out of a
hole. It's a mobo cap, and the other hole sucked right out. It's
like an
obstruction. The solder melts with difficulty, but even then I can't
get a
dental pick as deep as in the other hole. The cap pulled out easily
on both
leads.

Probably a multilayer board with a big ground plane acting as a heat
sink.

You left out the MOST IMPORTANT first step!!!
Wear eye protection!!!
Compressed air and molten solder is a recipe for blindness!!

Find some compressed air and a cardboard box.
Get the solder melted with a soldering iron. Use flux.
Point the back side of the PCB towards the cardboard box.
Heat the back side of the PCB with the soldering iron.
Apply the compressed air nozzle to the circuit side.
Remove the soldering iron and very quickly blow some compressed air
through the hold. The dross should land inside the cardboard box.

Also, pointed dental picks don't work well because there's too much
room for the solder in the hole with the tapered tip. Use a paper
clip or stainless piece of wire instead.

Of course there is also the "Whack" method of solder removal. Heat the
item up, and whack it against the bench really quickly.

Alternatively find some very low temperature solder - like Chip-Quick
solder - and melt it into the existing solder. Then it is much easier to
remove.

http://store.curiousinventor.com/chip-quikr-surface-mount-desoldering-kit.html

(not my store!)

John :-#)#

--
(Please post followups or tech enquiries to the newsgroup)
John's Jukes Ltd. 2343 Main St., Vancouver, BC, Canada V5T 3C9
Call (604)872-5757 or Fax 872-2010 (Pinballs, Jukes, Video Games)
www.flippers.com
"Old pinballers never die, they just flip out."

 

[Jamie]

Tom Del Rosso wrote:

For the past couple of hours I've been trying to get the solder out of a
hole. It's a mobo cap, and the other hole sucked right out. It's like an
obstruction. The solder melts with difficulty, but even then I can't get a
dental pick as deep as in the other hole. The cap pulled out easily on both
leads.


If you have some indium base solder or old leaded solder, reflow it with

that, then suck it out..
Also, I've used my hot air wand to clear the holes.

Jamie

 

[Tom Del Rosso]

Cydrome Leader wrote:

Tom Del Rosso <td_03@verizon.net.invalid> wrote:

For the past couple of hours I've been trying to get the solder out
of a hole. It's a mobo cap, and the other hole sucked right out.
It's like an obstruction. The solder melts with difficulty, but
even then I can't get a dental pick as deep as in the other hole.
The cap pulled out easily on both leads.

add fress solder and try again.

burned up and oxidized tips and traces don't conduct heat well and
won't melt solder in a thick or multilayer board. get some solder
wick, the stuff is magic for things like this.

Thanks all.

I got it by applying an iron to one side and the vacuum to the other side.
The Pace desolder station doesn't get hot enough.

I was also using lead-free when I added solder to help it melt. 60/40
worked better.

What's the word on using 60/40 on the replacement?


--

Reply in group, but if emailing add one more
zero, and remove the last word.

 

[mike]

On 7/17/2012 9:52 PM, Tom Del Rosso wrote:

I was also using lead-free when I added solder to help it melt. 60/40
worked better.

What's the word on using 60/40 on the replacement?


Depending on where you live, it's probably illegal.

But you'd never be prosecuted, because nobody would know...
unless you blabbed it to a few hundred million people on the internet.
;-)

 

[Chas]

"Jamie" <jamie_ka1lpa_not_valid_after_ka1lpa_@charter.net> wrote in message
news:7gnNr.4237$jA7.3135@newsfe15.iad...

Tom Del Rosso wrote:

For the past couple of hours I've been trying to get the solder out of a
hole. It's a mobo cap, and the other hole sucked right out. It's like
an obstruction. The solder melts with difficulty, but even then I can't
get a dental pick as deep as in the other hole. The cap pulled out
easily on both leads.


If you have some indium base solder or old leaded solder, reflow it with
that, then suck it out..
Also, I've used my hot air wand to clear the holes.

Jamie

Carefully drill the solder out with a PCB drill slightly smaller than the
hole.
--
Regards,

Chas.

(To email me, replace "xxx" with letters tango papa golf.)

 

[Ian Field]

"Jeff Liebermann" wrote in message
news:qnrb08hodnmfu6v4v071fd5sp5mu6nj57m@4ax.com...

On Tue, 17 Jul 2012 15:37:31 -0700, mike <spamme9@gmail.com> wrote:

You left out the MOST IMPORTANT first step!!!
Wear eye protection!!!
Compressed air and molten solder is a recipe for blindness!!

Thanks. Y'er right. Goggles or a face mask are a must.

Back in the days when it was worth the effort, I used to remove
components from a PCB by clamping one end of the board in a bench vise
and heating the solder side with a propane torch. When the solder was
good and hot, I would pull the board back and let go. The components
and the solder would go flying in the opposite direction into a
cardboard box.


***Hot air (electric paint stripper) gun and a stiff paintbush - perfect for
harvesting SMD parts.

 

[Ian Field]

"Tom Del Rosso" wrote in message news:ju5fp8$mfc$1@dont-email.me...


Cydrome Leader wrote:

Tom Del Rosso <td_03@verizon.net.invalid> wrote:

For the past couple of hours I've been trying to get the solder out
of a hole. It's a mobo cap, and the other hole sucked right out.
It's like an obstruction. The solder melts with difficulty, but
even then I can't get a dental pick as deep as in the other hole.
The cap pulled out easily on both leads.

add fress solder and try again.

burned up and oxidized tips and traces don't conduct heat well and
won't melt solder in a thick or multilayer board. get some solder
wick, the stuff is magic for things like this.

Thanks all.

I got it by applying an iron to one side and the vacuum to the other side.
The Pace desolder station doesn't get hot enough.

I was also using lead-free when I added solder to help it melt. 60/40
worked better.

What's the word on using 60/40 on the replacement?

***Original manufacturers have made remarkable progress in applying RoHS
solder so the components don't fall off after a year or so - unreliability
can rear its ugly head if you pb free solder with the kit on a typical
repair bench.

***If you do get called to book for using 60/40 - just claim that its old
equipment, and you believed that's what it was originally made with.

***If its for hobby purposes and not for resale, that's also exempt.

 

[Ian Field]

"Jamie" wrote in message news:7gnNr.4237$jA7.3135@newsfe15.iad...

Tom Del Rosso wrote:

For the past couple of hours I've been trying to get the solder out of a
hole. It's a mobo cap, and the other hole sucked right out. It's like an
obstruction. The solder melts with difficulty, but even then I can't get
a dental pick as deep as in the other hole. The cap pulled out easily on
both leads.


If you have some indium base solder or old leaded solder, reflow it with

that, then suck it out..

***Way back in the days of hybrid CTVs, I remember an old Tandberg telly
that had a "safety pin" style thermal fuse connecting the top cap of the
horizontal sweep tube, just inside the timebase cage was a clip holding a
small roll of low temperature cadmium solder (and a warning label not to use
60/40) for resetting the fuse.

***No doubt the Brussels suits reaction to lead solder would pale into
insignificance compared to cadmium solder!

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Wed, 18 Jul 2012 14:44:45 +0100, "Ian Field"
<gangprobing.alien@ntlworld.com> wrote:

***Hot air (electric paint stripper) gun and a stiff paintbush - perfect for
harvesting SMD parts.

Yep, but I don't do it that way. With SMD, the problem is identifying
the parts after they've been removed. I usually just want the active
components anyway. So, I have a hot air desoldering station to remove
the chips individually with the help of some liquid flux. The parts
are then bagged and labeled in paper coin bags. A mess of random SMT
components does me no good when I have to spend hours trying to
identify or find a specific component.

Overall, the small parts are so cheap, that I'm questioning whether
it's even worth salvaging the parts. Certainly for RAM, uP, and
possibly BGA chips. However, it's usually easier, cheaper, and takes
less time to just order the parts from a distributor. Also, I suspect
that I only use maybe 1 part for every 100 parts that I scrap.
Recently, I've gone back to just storing the PCB's, and pulling off
parts as needed.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

 

[Jim Yanik]

Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote in
news:v3hb08d01depv0meuuobcp9846od31spih@4ax.com:

On Tue, 17 Jul 2012 15:53:01 -0400, "Tom Del Rosso"
td_03@verizon.net.invalid> wrote:

For the past couple of hours I've been trying to get the solder out of
a hole. It's a mobo cap, and the other hole sucked right out. It's
like an obstruction. The solder melts with difficulty, but even then
I can't get a dental pick as deep as in the other hole. The cap
pulled out easily on both leads.

Probably a multilayer board with a big ground plane acting as a heat
sink.

Find some compressed air and a cardboard box.
Get the solder melted with a soldering iron. Use flux.
Point the back side of the PCB towards the cardboard box.
Heat the back side of the PCB with the soldering iron.
Apply the compressed air nozzle to the circuit side.
Remove the soldering iron and very quickly blow some compressed air
through the hold. The dross should land inside the cardboard box.

Also, pointed dental picks don't work well because there's too much
room for the solder in the hole with the tapered tip. Use a paper
clip or stainless piece of wire instead.

sounds like a job for Chip-Quik or other low-melting-point solder.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com

 

[Jim Yanik]

Cydrome Leader <presence@MUNGEpanix.com> wrote in
news:ju4i0h$ocl$1@reader1.panix.com:

Tom Del Rosso <td_03@verizon.net.invalid> wrote:

For the past couple of hours I've been trying to get the solder out
of a hole. It's a mobo cap, and the other hole sucked right out.
It's like an obstruction. The solder melts with difficulty, but even
then I can't get a dental pick as deep as in the other hole. The cap
pulled out easily on both leads.

add fress solder and try again.

burned up and oxidized tips and traces don't conduct heat well and
won't melt solder in a thick or multilayer board. get some solder
wick, the stuff is magic for things like this.

solder wick on a multilayer board can cause internal expansion and
internal,unseen breaking of vias and plated-thru holes.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com

 

[Jim Yanik]

news@jecarter.us wrote in
news:bqlb08dmvtt2u5pmdhkbfm0oeje4kos2sf@4ax.com:

On Tue, 17 Jul 2012 15:53:01 -0400, "Tom Del Rosso"
td_03@verizon.net.invalid> wrote:


For the past couple of hours I've been trying to get the solder out of
a hole. It's a mobo cap, and the other hole sucked right out. It's
like an obstruction. The solder melts with difficulty, but even then
I can't get a dental pick as deep as in the other hole. The cap
pulled out easily on both leads.

A Solder Sucker is much better than a dental pick (I've used both).
The solder sucker can be used on one side of the board while the iron
is still on the pad on the other side of the board, which is when the
solder is at its most liquid state.

I concur.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com

 

[Jim Yanik]

Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote in
news:f9nd0812gqb59gn756tto2pomt1pikg27m@4ax.com:

On Wed, 18 Jul 2012 14:44:45 +0100, "Ian Field"
gangprobing.alien@ntlworld.com> wrote:

***Hot air (electric paint stripper) gun and a stiff paintbush -
perfect for harvesting SMD parts.

Yep, but I don't do it that way. With SMD, the problem is identifying
the parts after they've been removed. I usually just want the active
components anyway. So, I have a hot air desoldering station to remove
the chips individually with the help of some liquid flux. The parts
are then bagged and labeled in paper coin bags. A mess of random SMT
components does me no good when I have to spend hours trying to
identify or find a specific component.

Overall, the small parts are so cheap, that I'm questioning whether
it's even worth salvaging the parts. Certainly for RAM, uP, and
possibly BGA chips. However, it's usually easier, cheaper, and takes
less time to just order the parts from a distributor. Also, I suspect
that I only use maybe 1 part for every 100 parts that I scrap.
Recently, I've gone back to just storing the PCB's, and pulling off
parts as needed.

I would be VERY leery of a BGA "re-used";
I don't believe one can get the inner pads to solder reliably.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com