Soldering Kit Accessories: Soldering Wick
A soldering wick is a handy tool when it comes to undoing a piece of soldering. It is also commonly referred to as a desoldering braid. In most instances, a soldering wick involves a copper wire coated with flux, mostly natural rosin. The desoldering wick usually comes in a roll though rare varieties may come in different configurations.
Using a desoldering wick is relatively straightforward. The braid is unrolled to a reasonable level; enough to cover the length of solder being unsoldered. After holding the wick in place, a hot soldering iron is placed over the wick above the solder. The iron is held in place until the solder melts. Once this happens, the molten solder is absorbed by the copper wick through a process known as capillary action. Once all of the solder is removed from the work-piece, the wick is removed and the part with the solder is cut off from the braid. The surface is then again ready for resoldering or other activity.
It is necessary to regulate the heat levels especially when desoldering components from printed circuit boards. These have very small and sensitive tools that are prone to damage at high temperatures. The above-described technique may vary slightly depending on the soldering method that was used to get the solder in place initially. Through-hole soldered components may require a variation of the technique applied to a surface-mount solder. Among the desoldering methods available, use of a soldering braid is perhaps the most effective and simple one. Solder wicks are also cheap and available tools making the method very cost-effective too. However, the braid makes use of special copper, often 18-42 AWG copper. This has different melting, absorption and heating characteristics as compared to regular copper.