Soldering_Zone

Pro Soldering Iron Tips

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How To Use Desoldering Tweezers

Desoldering tweezers are handy household equipment and are essentially a pair of pinchers with ends that contain two small soldering irons. Each end of desoldering tweezers heats up and act as a standalone soldering iron tip. The use of desoldering tweezers results in neat, precise and regulated outcomes. These are manufactured by a majority of soldering equipment manufacturers such as Weller and Goot. The use of soldering tweezers is straightforward and is perhaps one of the easiest desoldering methods to learn.

First, prepare your PCB by removing it from any attached components. The PCB should then be cleaned to reduce the problems that arise from use of dirty boards. After the PCB is ready, identify the component to be desoldered. Due to their dual-ended pinchers, tweezers are ideal for desoldering multiple-ended components such as resistors, capacitors and diodes. After identifying your component of interest, prepare the desoldering tweezers by preheating them to the required temperature depending on the type of solder. Just like the conventional soldering iron , soldering tweezers from reputable companies often contain an inbuilt thermostat that regulates temperatures and heat output from both ends of the tweezers. Using the heated iron tips, hold the soldered ends of the component legs until the solder melts. This will leave the leads exposed and depending on the method of soldering used, the component may be pulled out of the PCB at this stage. However, if the item was soldered in using methods such as the through-hole technology, it will be necessary to straighten the leads which are usually bend to hold the item in place on the PCB prior to soldering. However, this is probably the easiest step in desoldering. 

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How to clean a soldering iron

The general procedure for soldering often gets various impurities and debris onto the tips, handles and wands of soldering irons. There are various options available for cleaning and maintaining the irons. The most common include use of brass sponges, regular sponges, isopropyl agents and distilled water, However, more methods exist but with lesser effectiveness or at higher costs.

Brass sponges

These are thin windings if brass strips bundled together to resemble a sponge. Cleaning with this involves moving the iron tip against the sponge as would happen while sharpening a knife. Among all available metals, brass happens to be the best at cleaning ironing tips without causing damage. Brass sponges can be bought with select soldering kits but are often bought as separate soldering iron accessories.

Regular sponges

These are often cooled before being used to clean soldering irons. Basically, the tip is placed or rubbed against the sponge after operation. This causes rapid cooling of the tip and thus removes any solder or residue stuck on the tip. This happens due to the differences in contraction points of the metal and the alloy making up the solder. However, the use of regular sponges as a means of cleaning is discouraged due to the possibility of tip damage from continued rapid contraction.

Distilled water and isopropyl agents

Distilled water can be used to clean a wide range of items within a soldering kit. The distillation ensures that the cleaning process eliminates any king of impurities from the soldering iron. Isopropyl agents on the other hand are used primarily to clean resin and other flux residue off the soldering iron and off the working space.

Your choice of a cleaning agent will depend largely on factors such as availability, pricing and frequency of work among other factors.

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How To Use A Desoldering Pump

A desoldering pump is a small piston-like tool essential for the removal of solder from PCBs and other components. A desoldering pump normally has three main elements; the spring mechanism, the tip and the suction mechanism. The working of a desoldering pump is a little bit complicated but doesn’t take long to learn.

To desolder a component from a PCB using a desoldering pump, it has to be of average size. Very small components will have very little contact with the inside of the tip while very large components will have very small thermal linkage. To use the tool, push the piston handle on top while placing the tip at the solder you want to melt. Hold this in place until the solder melts which may take little to average time.

Once the solder melts, press the button on the side of the desoldering pump. This causes the suction mechanism to activate and pull backwards creating a vacuum within the piston. This vacuum effectively pulls with it the molten solder at the base of the tip thus effectively desoldering the component. However, the tool has various shortcomings. One is the fact that it can only desolder one end of a component tip and is thus not as effective as say, desoldering tweezers. Secondly, the vacuuming mechanism may not be very PCB-friendly since it causes significant shakes and vibrations. The tool can also not be used to desolder very small components since the base is relatively bold and the sucking mechanism will desolder all of the solder it comes to contact with. However, as compared to methods such as heat guns, desoldering pumps can be pretty effective.