Soldering/De-soldering stations...again...

[katzcaps]

Hey guys,

Would like some feedback on Soldering/De-soldering stations. There are some older threads about them, but how about some current equipment suggestions?

I need a De-soldering gun, but after looking over the crop of stations avail. out there, I kinda like the idea of an all-in-one station.

Specifically, the BK6000 by Circuit Specialists. I know a few members on here have earlier models of their stations; anyone have any recent experience with them?

What the current quality of their equipment is? As always - I know, you get what you pay for, and $229 is pretty reasonable for all the features that station offers...

Unfortunately, I do not have the amount of cash needed for a *quality* unit like a Hakko , Edsyn or similar.

Comments/suggestions welcome.

Thanks!

[katzcaps]

Re: Soldering/De-soldering stations...again...

After doing more research, I see that the Aoyue 2702A+ is essentially the same unit as the aforementioned BK6000 with very similar pricing.

But the 2702A+ doesn't come up in a search on the Aoyue website. I suppose it is a discontinued model? I'm concerned about parts availability with a discontinued model.

[Agent24]

Re: Soldering/De-soldering stations...again...

I think it's been replaced with the Int2703A+

http://www.aoyue.com/en/ArticleShow.asp?ArticleID=436

That one might actually be better as it appears you can run the iron and desoldering gun at the same time. With the BK6000 it looks like you have to run either one or the other.

[katzcaps]

Re: Soldering/De-soldering stations...again...

Yes, I just came across that on a reseller site for the Aoyue stations. It is supposed to be avail. here in the states on March 8th. For $279.00, a very nice unit - if the quality is there.

[Agent24]

Re: Soldering/De-soldering stations...again...

I don't think you can really expect great quality in something cheap from China.

Although it's probably a lot better than nothing but I'm also pretty sure a Hakko, Pace, Metcal etc is going to be much better.

[severach]

Re: Soldering/De-soldering stations...again...

I have a Aoyue 2702A+. I don't use the sucker or the soldering iron any more. I only use the hot air. Turns out separate tools are much more useful because on boards with heavy copper planes the solder and desolder tips destroy the board before supplying sufficient heat. Hot air must be used along side to provide the heat. The 2702A+ hot air and suction run from the same pump. When the hot air is on, the sucker is on. Desoldering doesn't work if the sucker is on all the time and desoldering doesn't work without the extra heat. A small tip on the hot air gun reduces suck volume.

If you ain't packing this much heat (see picture) you won't get jack.

[KeriJane]

Re: Soldering/De-soldering stations...again...

If you ain't packing this much heat (see picture) you won't get jack.

Neat idea with the hot air gun and 808. I've got just the board to try it on.

But I "get (laptop) Jack" all the time with the 808 all by itself. That's usualy relatively easy. Have you got yours set hot enough and is the tip tight?

[severach]

Re: Soldering/De-soldering stations...again...

Flux would make desoldering easy but flux is no good with desoldering because it quickly clogs the filter. The filter collapses and lead dust ruins the pump. Without flux the desoldering gun tips don't last long so I turn the Hakko 808 all the way down to make them last. It's still too hot. Without flux the desoldering tip must be mashed into the board to get a little heat to transfer which destroys the board and tip.

The solution is to get the bulk of your heat from hot air which is non contact and heats the same with or without flux. Once hot a quick touch from the desoldering gun melts the solder with no board damage if the tip is good.

All too often on the tough boards desoldering only removes the top half of the solder leaving the lead firmly soldered in place. The solder bead that pulled all the heat from the tip has been sucked away. Without hot air all you can do is add new solder to get your bead back and try again. It may take several tries to remove the solder all the way through. You can't see whether the solder at the bottom has melted so you heat more and more with every new glob of solder risking board damage. Lots of wasted time and solder.

Hot air eliminates this problem. Unlike a solder gun that requires a solder bead to draw out the heat, hot air heats everything it touches right down into the partially desoldered hole. Heat , touch down, suck as many times as necessary. No solder, no flux, no board damage.

The modem jack I showed looks doable with gobs of solder and a desoldering iron. Hot air assist makes this practical (see picture). Once the board is hot the solder melts instantly on contact and desoldering a large number of pins resembles a fast game of whack-a-mole. Since all of the solder melts the holes clear completely more often making removal easier.

Picture: reclaim ATX PCB I/O port risers for VGA, serial, parallel, Ethernet, audio, USB, firewire, SATA, PS/2, eSATA, and power.

Laptop power jacks can be very hard. HP has a few models where the jack is suspended out on two narrow pieces of PCB and HP often uses that impossible to melt solder. Touching anything risks destroying the board. It's not even safe to cut the jack off. These are so difficult that I take every advantage I can and ignore the risk to the filter. I add hot air, solder, and flux. It works!

[mockingbird]

Re: Soldering/De-soldering stations...again...

Some fantastic advice severach... I have some questions:

1) How do you blow and suck alternately when you only have one pump!? Doesn't it take too much time to switch functions with that station?
2) Could this be done with a heatgun or do you need to specifically use a reflow tip to heat that specific area?
3) Why don't you use a solder pot for that kind of stuff?
4) What do you use for fume exhaustion?
5) What do you need all those motherboard ports for?

[Agent24]

Re: Soldering/De-soldering stations...again...

The Hakko 808 is a completely separate desoldering gun. You couldn't do that job with a combined tool that only has one pump.

[severach]

Re: Soldering/De-soldering stations...again...

An unregulated wide mouth heat gun is too much of a loose canon. The narrow tip focuses the heat where it is needed and the temperature control helps avoid burning things up.

Though I've never had a solder pot they seem like high maintenance. Solder is easily contaminated and I'm not too keen on discarding large amounts or constantly adding flux to keep it clean. A solder pot wants to fill all holes so won't do much for hole clearing.

Flux allows me to solder at low temps so I don't produce enough fumes to need exhausting.

Each time get a board with a new thing broken I start collecting those off the easy boards. I don't care to discard a board because the VGA port is damaged but I need to take a bunch off to learn how to do it without damage. There are too many different styles of ports. The initial heating takes a long time so removal of the first component is slow. Once hot I just push the heat across the board and the remaining components go fast.

[Agent24]

Re: Soldering/De-soldering stations...again...

You don't need to keep adding flux, you can just scrape the dross off the top. In fact adding flux would likely just help to create more dross from the used flux.

Cleaning the holes is not really necessary if you are soldering. While the PCB is over the pot and the holes are filled with liquid solder, you can just insert the component during that time. That is what can be done with selective wave soldering anyway. With the pot it is a bit trickier though.

[Uranium-235]

Re: Soldering/De-soldering stations...again...

I've used an 808 /w flux before with no problems, I just soften up the filter with 91% isoprobyl to help air flow, but have had no problems for a year with light amount of work so far.

[mockingbird]

Re: Soldering/De-soldering stations...again...

I have to practice this sort of thing. I like your poor-man's style way of doing things. This is very much how I do things and I am amused to see all the "pros" with their high-end equipment struggling...

I have a heatgun I got for less than $10... I was thinking of focusting the output into a metal funnel I can make out of tin or aluminum thus giving me a narrower "tip". Do you think this is dangerous and that the constricted hot air will destroy the gun? I should really post a pic of it.

[KeriJane]

Re: Soldering/De-soldering stations...again...

Just sort of wondering where these "Pros with their high-end equipment" are struggling at....
It might be funny to watch.

Well-equipped "Pros" seldom struggle with anything.
Poorly-equipped amateurs struggle all the time with makeshift methods.
Most are in the middle somewhere.

Severach just posted something well worth doing.....
Practice on scrap boards!

I've got a box full of donor and practice boards.

[katzcaps]

Re: Soldering/De-soldering stations...again...

I picked up the 2703A+ & tried it out for the first time a couple days ago. severach is correct with the the de-soldering gun situation.

I was trying to remove caps/jacks/etc., and I ran into the issue of melting the surface solder while the solder deep in the hole remains intact and does not allow the component to be easily removed.

I didn't have a chance to try out the heat gun yet to "assist" in the de-soldering gun, that is my next step. So far, this has actually been kind of a "pain" & not an enjoyable experience at all.

It is interesting in the youtube vids on the Edsyn ZD500DX de-solder station just how easily this gun removes solder & components. Of course, we're talking $650.00 for just that unit alone, so it better be good.

I wonder if that gun performs so well simply because they are using new/ clean boards/new solder. Would an older/dirty contaminated board be as easy to work with using the Edsyn?