Re: Centipede Working -- Thanks !

On Thu, 1 Apr 1999 22:27:40 -0500 (EST), "Christopher X. Candreva"
<chris@westnet.com> wrote:

>My tools consist of a 15/30W pencil and desoldering braid. I suckeverything
>off the bottom, turn the board over, suck everything from the top. Repeat
>both sides, and usually the chip pops right out. That is-- usually it does.
>I can't seem to do these 80's Atari boards without destroying at least one
>trace.
>
>This one I only damamged one pin -- and damned if I could see it. After
>soldering in the socket (and finding the board didn't work), pin by pin
>check with a tester showed one as no connection. Reheating and dribbling
>solder down the hole did no good, so I grudgingly resorted to a jumper wire.
>
>I almost feel silly asking for soldering hints, as I've been doing this
>since I was about 8, but I'm figuring part of the problem is the age of the
>boards. Is there a trick to doing this (other than being more carefull ) ?

Assuming you're more interested in keeping the board intact than you are in the
(supposedly) bad part being removed, then what I do is to take a pair of wire
cutters and cut each pin off the IC. I make the cut flush against the side of
the IC, so after cutting all pins the IC falls out, and is completely useless
looking a lot like a caterpillar with every leg pulled off. At this point it's
a piece of cake to remove each individual pin with zero damage to the board.
For easy to get parts (like TL081's and such) it's just not worth risking damage
to the board.

If you're trying to save both the board and the IC, then what your doing is the
same thing I do, though I do throw a solder sucker into the mix.

I've heard of people using hot air guns, and even blow torches to remove IC's.
This seems most useful for mass removal of parts, where the parts take priority
over the board. (I'd favor the hot air gun over the blow torch, especially a
hot air gun where you can control the temperature.)

-Zonn
Received on Fri Apr 2 02:55:56 1999