Favorite recapping methods

[shovenose]

Re: Favorite recapping methods

Oh dear...
I don't use any fancy tools.. just melt solder, Yank out old cap, push new onenin hard, apply new solder, cut lead

[ratdude747]

Re: Favorite recapping methods

Oh dear...
I don't use any fancy tools.. just melt solder, Yank out old cap, push new onenin hard, apply new solder, cut lead

I seriously thought more of badcaps.net was actually desoldering... not to call anybody a noob, but I had always read to not do the quoted method.


maybe i am special after all...

[shovenose]

Re: Favorite recapping methods

I don't have the proper tools for the job... that's my biggest problem.
And I don't want to spend money on the tools until I do re-caps frequently enough to make it worth it.

[ratdude747]

Re: Favorite recapping methods

I don't have the proper tools for the job... that's my biggest problem.
And I don't want to spend money on the tools until I do re-caps frequently enough to make it worth it.

yeah, i bet after blowing $$ on that laptop battery... once again, money management. can't live in the real world without it...

[shovenose]

Re: Favorite recapping methods

yeah, i bet after blowing $$ on that laptop battery... once again, money management. can't live in the real world without it...

Are you fucking kidding me? Money managment=not spending an exta $80 on Batteries Plus crap!
I was simply sharing my "favorite recapping methods" and you don't need to turn this into a pissing contest about money management. If you've got a problem with something I'm doing PM me or email me - don't get into it in a thread that really doesn't need to be derailed into some debate (we've got a high enough rate of that already).
All the best,
-shovenose

[c_hegge]

Re: Favorite recapping methods

I seriously thought more of badcaps.net was actually desoldering... not to call anybody a noob, but I had always read to not do the quoted method.


maybe i am special after all...

The quoted method works just fine for me and has for a number of years. With proper soldering skills, you don't need any desoldering gear or braid unless you're trying to deal with lots of pins. Shovenose doesn't need any tools. He just has to perfect the art of tool-less desoldering, so stop bashing him for spending a couple of dollars on a cheap battery for an old but good laptop.

[ratdude747]

Re: Favorite recapping methods

The quoted method works just fine for me and has for a number of years. With proper soldering skills, you don't need any desoldering gear or braid unless you're trying to deal with lots of pins. Shovenose doesn't need any tools. He just has to perfect the art of tool-less desoldering, so stop bashing him for spending a couple of dollars on a cheap battery for an old but good laptop.

you would be right if everythign was single/double layer PCBs. guess what? it ain't.

I hate to say this but hearing someone complai about not having a little $ for some realtivly cheap tools but weeks earlier was spending money on a bunch of toys come off to me like

can we get back on topic, or will you continue to me?

[c_hegge]

Re: Favorite recapping methods

I do have further arguments, but I'm going to leave it here before it ends in a flame war.

[Scenic]

Re: Favorite recapping methods

PSUs: manual solder sucker + braid (the white goo to hold the components in place seems to be more of a problem than anything solder-wise..)

Mobos: manual solder sucker + braid + small stainless steel sewing needle fixed in a luster terminal block (as a handle .. don't wanna burn my fingers)
Sometimes it helps to add solder to both sides of the hole to melt the solder stuck inside it, then suck it out.

Sometimes i have to just line up the cap and push it through the holes while heating on the solder side with plenty of fresh solder w. flux. Mainly in places with huge traces.

like c_hegge said, i've only ever had real problems soldering Asus boards.
ASRock on the other hand not so much.. cheaper PCB (?)

VCore caps are the absolute worst. Needs heavy artillery, ie: preheating the whole board with a hair dryer (or carefully with a heat gun if you have one), lots of fresh solder and flux and a pretty high-wattage iron.

I do most of my stuff with a cheapo 35W noname ("parkside" ?!) iron. Apart from VCore caps, it's been doing fine. For those i need to bring out my 50 (or was it 60?) watt monstrocity which is probably older than i am *knocks on wood*

[Topcat]

Re: Favorite recapping methods

I use my old trusty method, the pick...... I'll use a mechanical solder sucker on some single layer PCB's in PSU's occasionally though.

[Agent24]

Re: Favorite recapping methods

I found a solder sucker gives nice clean holes, as long as your iron can give enough heat. The problem is for big areas (like Vcore as Scenic said) mine doesn't seem able to do that by itself.

My solder sucker isn't one of the super powerful ones, and I haven't sucked out the plating yet. But you must make sure the solder is completely liquid before sucking or nothing happens.

Tried the pick method but I found it doesn't really help that much if you still don't have enough power.

Preheating might work but I don't have a preheater, just SMD hot air, and then it seems you need 3 arms! (or I'm doing it wrong, again)



Recently however, I borrowed a Den-On SC-5000 (Like Hakko 808) which was awesome on single and double-sided boards and could also cope well on the 'standard' tracks on a motherboard.

I had success on most larger areas when preheated with the hot air, and being a desoldering gun you only need 2 arms which makes the process a lot easier. Capacitors weren't as easy but I think I might have been using a tip too big. The pads for the capacitors are very small and the tip was a 1.0mm which is about how big the pads are themselves, so the contact area wasn't too good. An 0.8mm tip would probably have been better, but there wasn't one available to try.

The only big problem I saw was that being an all-in-one desoldering tool you get vibrations through the tip into the board. I managed to damage the board in some places with it, probably because of this - so I think for motherboards or anything else with small pads you'd want one with the pump separate in a base station to reduce the chance of damage.

[momaka]

Re: Favorite recapping methods

Needle works fine for me.
Coupled with my 35W Radio Shack soldering iron (pistol-style handle), I have had almost no problems desoldering just about anything. The only exceptions were big lead-free joints in PSUs and v-core caps on motherboards. I didn't try pre-heating those joints though. Might have actually worked if I did.

I do also have a manual desoldering pump - very useful for recovering DIP ICs from TV and PSU boards as well as removing other multi-pin components.

When removing caps, sometimes I don't use anything other than my iron - just wiggle the old cap out, then push through the solder with the leads of the new cap.

I also almost never add new solder to joints when desoldering, unless I have to. Most boards already have leftover flux on the joints. But I think what's really helping here is that the tip on my iron is very caved in, so it fits around most solder joints perfectly.

[KeriJane]

Re: Favorite recapping methods

After struggling for years with pogo-stick suckers, awkward bulb suckers and all manners of picks, pins and drills....

I finally got a Hakko 808.

It's the best thing ever. Just add a little solder if needed, put the Hakko in place, pull trigger and buzz! One nice clean hole nearly every time. Old caps fall out like new ones most times.

Desoldering is now the fast part of the repair.

Only thing to be careful of is accidentally desoldering adjacent SMDs

[Fud]

Re: Favorite recapping methods

Pretty new to this so when I first desoldered a bunch of caps on my tv i didn't look into it really and just winged it since doing soldering before. I did the melt and wiggle out for each one, then they were plugged and was thinking ok get a needle and poke it through.

That took forever twisting the needle through each hole and testing if the leads would fit through, I thought maybe if they made micro drill bits the same gauge as the lead that might work but they would probably break after one use and no chuck will hold something that small. At least not a regular drill chuck.

It worked but took ages to do, so since i got a plunger sucker with a trigger for the next thing the mobo and might get some braided desoldering wire too since it's cheap.

From looking at the design of the sucker tool it doesn't make much sense because you would have to hold it perpendicular to the board and how do you suck it away with the iron there in the way? Pull the tip away and it's solid already by the time the sucker gets there. Or maybe cut the tip slanted i dunno. I'll try the braid but the twisting a needle for ages isn't going to work.

[Agent24]

Re: Favorite recapping methods

Forget drilling on plated through holes\multilayer boards. If you get the drill on a slight angle you will likely mess up the through hole plating, even worse if you snapped it off in the hole.

If you're talking about single layer boards you shouldn't need a drill or anything.

Solder sucker works just as you describe on single layer boards, you just move the sucker in, bring it down over the joint and press the button as you remove the iron. The sucker tips are designed to tolerate heat, so if you hit them with the iron it's OK. (but they do wear after a while, which is why you can buy spares)

For clearing plated through holes with a solder sucker, heat from one side and suck from the other (assuming you have removed the component first)

You will need to remove the iron tip at the same time as you press the button otherwise you cover the other side of the hole with the iron and prevent airflow.

[smason]

Re: Favorite recapping methods

On single-sided monitor boards, I use a 25 year old Soldapullt spring loaded desoldering tool. With the iron set pretty high, I add a bit of solder to each pin, then heat and slurp.
about 60% of the time the cap actually falls out.
On motherboards they rarely fall out, but most of the solder comes out with the tool, then the heat and wiggle method gets them out.
Some difficult boards need the dental pick method to clear the holes for the new caps.

[severach]

Re: Favorite recapping methods

That took forever twisting the needle through each hole and testing if the leads would fit through, I thought maybe if they made micro drill bits the same gauge as the lead that might work but they would probably break after one use and no chuck will hold something that small.

Needles stick to solder even if stainless, are too small, bend easily, and have sharp points that clear holes in your fingers better than in circuit boards. Picks usually have points which makes them work poorly. You have the right idea. A drill bit is the right tool but there isn't any drilling. Chuck a 0.8mm drill from Harbor Freight 94606 into a General Tools 92 hand vice the with the butt end out. Iron on one side, drill on the other, and POP! A perfect sized hole every time. The drill doesn't corrode or stick to solder. The weak fluted end is inside the vice and the strong end sticks out so the drill won't break easily even though it is small. The pin vice makes the drill safe and easy to use. You can buy drills sized for common leads and holes.

The Hakko 808 is a classy tool but is a waste of an expensive tool for removing 2 lead caps and is much slower than the above procedure. Like braid and spring pullers the Hakko will only work on the easy boards. Flux plugs the filter. The drill bit in a hand vice is fast, efficient, works on everything, and uses the iron you already own.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Favorite recapping methods

I find the needle method is incredibly easy and fast.
I also use solder braid.
.
At one time or another I've tried everything except something like the Hakko 808.
That includes that rack-shack thing with the bulb. It sucked. ,ummm, never mind...
- That thing shouldn't be grouped with the 808 BTW. A bulb and a pump are vastly different.
I do have an older PACE vacuum desoldering station with a remote pump and foot control but it's not enough watts for mobos.
.

[ratdude747]

Re: Favorite recapping methods

I find the needle method is incredibly easy and fast.
I also use solder braid.
.
At one time or another I've tried everything except something like the Hakko 808.
That includes that rack-shack thing with the bulb. It sucked. ,ummm, never mind...
- That thing shouldn't be grouped with the 808 BTW. A bulb and a pump are vastly different.
I do have an older PACE vacuum desoldering station with a remote pump and foot control but it's not enough watts for mobos.
.

i grouped them together since they are both heated desoldering devices that work on the same physics.

to each his own i guess

[Sparky]

Re: Favorite recapping methods

I got decent at using a stainless steel pin since for the longest time the only thing I had was a cheapo $5 walmart soldering iron I now have a nice Weller WESD51 which makes my life so much easier, but I've still been using the pins. I have two different sizes of pins for clearing the holes, depending on the size of hole I'm working with And I got pretty good at picking up big blobs of solder (like from PSU PCBs) with the iron and then just wiping off the blob.

I did just pick up a Soldapult at work, which will make things easier in some cases I'm sure.