tool needed?

[silvergoat]

Today, I replaced a few caps on a motherboard for a friend. The board had 2 adjacent holes for the negative lead, and 1 hole for the positive IIRC. The solder sucker worked well for the 2 holes, but was useless for the single hole. I had this problem before, and I've ordered a couple new conical tips to see if they will allow me to use the solder sucker more effectively for the really small holes, but I'm not sure it would be enough and was hoping to find a tool that was thin enough to clear the hole, and hard enough not to break. I've used sewing needles in the past, but they break under little stress.

I did try wick too, but that was equally useless.

Any recommendations?

[Topcat]

Re: tool needed?

Dental pick. Search around the site, theres a lot of info covering this in detail.

[ratdude747]

Re: tool needed?

if you need a pick, harbor freight has a set of AL handled picks on sale right now (only $3)... see the recent thread in this subforum on the usage of the set (currently right below this thread).

[silvergoat]

Re: tool needed?

Found this link after a search-

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showth...t=dental+picks

Good info for me- I didn't know what the terminology was so I had to start a thread. A question on top of my original question.......

There were comments that too big a pick can rip out something so I am unsure because I really beat the crap out of the motherboard I was working on and it worked fine, but I don't fully understand the nuances of working on this stuff. I used a pick which, incidentally, was bent by somebody using it on a different job- It turns out that the accidentally hooked end really helped me get the space in there, but I'm not sure where the limits are.

[ratdude747]

Re: tool needed?

Found this link after a search-

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showth...t=dental+picks

Good info for me- I didn't know what the terminology was so I had to start a thread. A question on top of my original question.......

There were comments that too big a pick can rip out something so I am unsure because I really beat the crap out of the motherboard I was working on and it worked fine, but I don't fully understand the nuances of working on this stuff. I used a pick which, incidentally, was bent by somebody using it on a different job- It turns out that the accidentally hooked end really helped me get the space in there, but I'm not sure where the limits are.

I tested the angled pick on a variety of dead motherboards... it works fine. It looks big but trust me, it is just fine.

My only note is that on a couple of the boards I tested it stopped with about 1 mm left to to go... which was enough to allow the leads to go in. as long as you are close to all the way in, you are good to go. (I may post that in the other thread)

[silvergoat]

Re: tool needed?

Ended up ordering these-

http://www.amazon.com/SE-Dental-Tool...7125734&sr=8-2

Harbor freights don't really exist around where I live, and driving to save a couple bucks is not really worth it considering the price of gas. I'd rather get stuff delivered to me tax free.