Beginner, practicing to unsolder on a lead free xbox 360 board, it is hell.

[Eh546]

Re: Beginner, practicing to unsolder on a lead free xbox 360 board, it is hell.

The power supply in the video is single sided PCB (as opposed to Motherboards which are multi-layer PCB) which are much easier to solder on, although for larger traces you might need to keep the iron on the solder pads for longer.

Having a soldering iron with good thermal recovery is important, especially when working (and using wick) on smaller traces on motherboards to avoid ripping them.

I'm thinking i should just practice on a diy kit like this beforehand to gain some experience and not mess the whole thing up lol.

[Spider1211]

Re: Beginner, practicing to unsolder on a lead free xbox 360 board, it is hell.

The power supply in the video is single sided PCB (as opposed to Motherboards which are multi-layer PCB) which are much easier to solder on, although for larger traces you might need to keep the iron on the solder pads for longer.

Having a soldering iron with good thermal recovery is important, especially when working (and using wick) on smaller traces on motherboards to avoid ripping them.

[stj]

Re: Beginner, practicing to unsolder on a lead free xbox 360 board, it is hell.

nothing wrong with lead-free solder, i'v used it for years.
as long as it's not shit(same applies to leaded solder) and your iron is ajustable, it's fine.

[Eh546]

Re: Beginner, practicing to unsolder on a lead free xbox 360 board, it is hell.

I see, no wonder why it's so difficult, i'll just use a heat gun for that board.

I also wanted recap an old monitor, an Asus VW266H (same model in this thread but no webcam, repair vid)

In the video he didn't seems to struggle much, and is only using regular soldering iron+wick+pump, so it's probably lead solder.

Thanks for the tips by the way.

[Spider1211]

Re: Beginner, practicing to unsolder on a lead free xbox 360 board, it is hell.

Cone tips are pretty much useless for these kind of work. What you want is a chisel tip.

The part you are trying to desolder is on a big ground plane which sucks and dissipates the heat faster and therefore the solder (unleaded) cannot reach melting temperature. This explains "But that didn't work since the lead solder doesn't seems to mix with the lead free one."

You need to preheat the board first (using hot air) and then try to desolder. It is important that you preheat the area of interest as well as surrounding components to prevent warping the board. (Also do not spot heat, rather heat in a circular motion)

[diif]

Re: Beginner, practicing to unsolder on a lead free xbox 360 board, it is hell.

That's a job for a hot air station not a 60W iron with a cone tip.

[stj]

Re: Beginner, practicing to unsolder on a lead free xbox 360 board, it is hell.

1: your soldering iron is too hot - set for 300(lead solder) or 350(lead-free).
2: to make wick work better add flux to it - the powder in it is crap.

if your iron is too hot you just burn the flux and nothing will solder at all.

[Eh546]

Don't hesitate to tell me what i do wrong and if you have any tips and tricks, because i want to learn and improve.

I have a 60w iron that can go up to 450c, cone tip, i usually set it at 400. I applied flux on solder, tinning the tip then applying new lead solder to the joint so that it can mix with the lead free and lower the melting point, then i tried to suck up the melted solder with the solder sucker. But that didn't work since the lead solder doesn't seems to mix with the lead free one. I also tried applying flux to a wick and the board, then tinning the tip of the iron and trying to remove the solder, it also doesn't work because the lead free solder doesn't get sucked into the wick, only the lead one does.

Here's what the solders looks like after trying the methods above.