circuit salvaging?????

[el duderino]

hey, today i took apart an old broken miniture key board for parts i got loads of caps and there are about 50 tiny resistors of all uncommon values ,, sweet

heres the problem i find it really hard to get parts off of the board,
and i was wondering if anyone had some tips on salvaging old circuits

:idea:  any ideas,comments or advice would really help :lol:

[Hal]

i hear desoldering braid works wonders.  i just do it the old school way, though...heat, blow, and pull :-D

you'll get better at it...and some stuff is easier than others.

[petemoore]

A heat gun...fast...made good time and got a nice count of parts.
 Probly had to pull them too, might have been a bit of a stinky job.
 I just use the old iron, get one pad & lead hot on say a cap, tip it this way to pull that side out some, let it set for a second or two, while I'm heating the other side and pull that out some, then usually it comes out when I go back to the first side.
 Sometimes I have to grab with needlenose cause My fingers wont fit, or they're getting burnt from pulling on hot parts.

[Peter Snowberg]

Desoldering braid works very well IF you also use liquid rosin to coat it. Without the liquid rosin, I gave up on it totally. I broke down and got a desoldering iron with a vacuum pump in it. When it's not clogged with solder it works amazingly well. The trouble is that it clogs very easily. For the most part I do the same heat, blow, and pull that Hal does. Sometimes I do the heat and shake instead if it's a larger amount of solder.

Take care,
-Peter

[puretube]

shake only when you wear jeans, never wearing shorts!

[petemoore]

I wiggle the iron in my brick-hole soldering iron holder, it knocks the glob of solder off, to prepare for the next perfect solder joint. low tech I know...

[Torchy]

A desoldering pump should be in everyone's toolkit. Bought mine for £5 (UK). Lifesaver (well, fingersaver then). Heat the joint, press the trigger, no more solder

[Chris Goodson]

:idea: Wouldn't it be cool if you could hook up a desoldering iron to your vaccum cleaner.

[el duderino]

i didnt think this post would be that popular

thanksd for the advise a guess im just going to have to stick it out!!!
Anywy its kinda fun! :shock:

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

http://digilander.libero.it/alfred73/eprojects.htm

home-made surface mount rework station.... now you can get all the bits you wnat out of old mobile phones etc :wink:

[sirkut]

Seriously, heat gun. I've got 5 boards from digital communications loggers that I've scored so many nice opamps, caps, trimmers, etc. Just turn it upside down, turn heat gun on, wisely distribute the heat and watch the parts fall! Sometimes some solder gets on the ics but nothing that can't be removed. I've saved SO much time with a heatgun.

[Ge_Whiz]

Heatgun, hot air paint stripper, call it what you will - heat up, pull out. The board will be scorched but will protect the components from damage. Anything else is just hard work.

[Brian Marshall]

i tried the heat gun thing.  i think i gave my self cancer with all the stuff i was breathing.

Unless there is something in there worth more than $1 i dont even try.

[el duderino]

Since i last post this whole topic i have all ready developed a little
trick of my own:

when the soldering tip gets hot and after a while i gets a crusty layer of black stuff so i found this strip of emery cloth, (for
metal) and sand some of the shity stuff off and then it leaves the bare tip of the iron witch is naturally hotter it workes like a charm

EM,I WOULD NOT TRY THIS WITH NORMAL SAND PAPER AS IT IS PAPER
AND WOULD PROBLY GO AN FIRE OR BURN OR WHATEVER!! :x  :!:

eamonn :idea:

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

when the soldering tip gets hot and after a while i gets a crusty layer of black stuff so i found this strip of emery cloth, (for
metal) and sand some of the shity stuff off and then it leaves the bare tip of the iron witch is naturally hotter it workes like a charm

well, I wouldn't do this with a soldering iron tip that is plated, because you will wear the plating off! and that would be tragic & expensive

[One-eyed Jack]

I often slip the tip of a penknife under one end of a resistor to lift it. I'll have to try the heatgun trick.

[puretube]

wet sponge...