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Stuart Polansky
 Post subject: Desoldering Braid
PostPosted: June 5th, 2025, 8:14 am 
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Pretty sure I'm keeping the companies that make and sell the braid in business. I rebuild gear so often that I may cry at all the wasted eutectic solder.

Solder suckers work to get the big mass of it, but I still need to follow up with the braid.

Well, at least a new amp project is underway!

Stuart
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FerdinandII
 Post subject: Re: Desoldering Braid
PostPosted: June 5th, 2025, 8:57 am 
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Joined: April 22nd, 2013, 12:58 pm
Posts: 302
Life Changing Tips for Wicking Solder
https://youtu.be/IjOh5ShVX_w?si=ibh144j4NC3_xLOk



Stuart Polansky wrote:
Pretty sure I'm keeping the companies that make and sell the braid in business. I rebuild gear so often that I may cry at all the wasted eutectic solder.

Solder suckers work to get the big mass of it, but I still need to follow up with the braid.

Well, at least a new amp project is underway!

Stuart
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SoundMods
 Post subject: Re: Desoldering Braid
PostPosted: June 5th, 2025, 8:58 am 
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Joined: July 24th, 2015, 4:17 pm
Posts: 1816
Location: Parkville, Maryland
Stuart Polansky wrote:
Pretty sure I'm keeping the companies that make and sell the braid in business. I rebuild gear so often that I may cry at all the wasted eutectic solder.

Solder suckers work to get the big mass of it, but I still need to follow up with the braid.

Well, at least a new amp project is underway!

Stuart

I decides to go "fancy" and get an electric de-soldering tool (aka. solder vacuum). In the long run it turned out to be a waste of money. Unless the tip is dead flat against the solder pad it doesn't get the job done especially when dealing with through-hole double-sided boards.

Say what you will about the basic ordinary solder-wick - it works as advertised; however, using de-soldering wick with a soldering pencil is a fool's errand. The copper wick also works as an efficient heat sink. I found I get the best results with a 150-watt soldering gun. It's not a matter of tip temperature as it is a matter of having sufficient heat production in terms of BTU/Hr to over come the heat being absorbed by the copper wick. In some rare cases even that wasn't enough so then I go to my "he-man" 250-watt soldering iron. Then a nice spray-can of rosin cleaner used with a tooth-brush finishes the job with nice shiny solder pads ready for action.

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David McGown
 Post subject: Re: Desoldering Braid
PostPosted: June 5th, 2025, 9:50 am 
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Joined: February 28th, 2013, 1:19 pm
Posts: 962
I use a Hakko FR-301 portable desoldering tool. It works great for PCBs, but you need to tin the tip and/or apply a bit of rosin. I was able to do delicate removal of electrolytic capacitors on my Chord DAVE, and it did a great job of cleaning the holes on the pads. But it is definitely not as effective for PTP (but does work with proper contact and tinning). One can get different tips, the default tip is for PCB work.

David
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tomp
 Post subject: Re: Desoldering Braid
PostPosted: June 5th, 2025, 2:40 pm 
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FerdinandII wrote:
Life Changing Tips for Wicking Solder
https://youtu.be/IjOh5ShVX_w?si=ibh144j4NC3_xLOk


Great video. Lots of good stuff even if you have been wicking for a long time.


Stuart Polansky wrote:
Pretty sure I'm keeping the companies that make and sell the braid in business. I rebuild gear so often that I may cry at all the wasted eutectic solder.

Solder suckers work to get the big mass of it, but I still need to follow up with the braid.

Well, at least a new amp project is underway!

Stuart
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Roscoe Primrose
 Post subject: Re: Desoldering Braid
PostPosted: June 5th, 2025, 4:06 pm 
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Posts: 1724
David McGown wrote:
I use a Hakko FR-301 portable desoldering tool. It works great for PCBs, but you need to tin the tip and/or apply a bit of rosin. I was able to do delicate removal of electrolytic capacitors on my Chord DAVE, and it did a great job of cleaning the holes on the pads. But it is definitely not as effective for PTP (but does work with proper contact and tinning). One can get different tips, the default tip is for PCB work.

David


:character-oldtimer: I use one of these: https://www.amazon.com/YIHUA-Profession ... B08KT9HTDN and I can't imagine doing PCB work without it. Done properly, you can de-solder the pins on a component, turn the board over, and it'll just fall out. I only use braid for things with pins that are too big to fit in the hole in the largest tip...

Roscoe

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SoundMods
 Post subject: Re: Desoldering Braid
PostPosted: June 5th, 2025, 4:54 pm 
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Roscoe Primrose wrote:
David McGown wrote:
I use a Hakko FR-301 portable desoldering tool. It works great for PCBs, but you need to tin the tip and/or apply a bit of rosin. I was able to do delicate removal of electrolytic capacitors on my Chord DAVE, and it did a great job of cleaning the holes on the pads. But it is definitely not as effective for PTP (but does work with proper contact and tinning). One can get different tips, the default tip is for PCB work.

David


:character-oldtimer: I use one of these: https://www.amazon.com/YIHUA-Profession ... B08KT9HTDN and I can't imagine doing PCB work without it. Done properly, you can de-solder the pins on a component, turn the board over, and it'll just fall out. I only use braid for things with pins that are too big to fit in the hole in the largest tip...

Roscoe

My desoldering tool is similar, but had bad luck with it. Maybe yours really "sucks"-- pun intended. What really pisses me off is that I paid more for mine.

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tomp
 Post subject: Re: Desoldering Braid
PostPosted: June 5th, 2025, 6:19 pm 
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For many years, I have had his hot air reflow workstation which is similar, but I still use solder wick for many cases.

https://www.circuitspecialists.com/bk40 ... kXdCCO1C2_
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SoundMods
 Post subject: Re: Desoldering Braid
PostPosted: June 5th, 2025, 9:52 pm 
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Location: Parkville, Maryland
tomp wrote:
For many years, I have had his hot air reflow workstation which is similar, but I still use solder wick for many cases.

https://www.circuitspecialists.com/bk40 ... kXdCCO1C2_

I will say this -- there are no surprises with good ole solder wick. It just simply gets the job done.

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Stuart Polansky
 Post subject: Re: Desoldering Braid
PostPosted: June 6th, 2025, 2:53 pm 
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Joined: December 14th, 2013, 2:19 pm
Posts: 1006
[quote="FerdinandII"]Life Changing Tips for Wicking Solder
https://youtu.be/IjOh5ShVX_w?si=ibh144j4NC3_xLOk

Interesting video. I already knew by experience many of the tips there. But there are definitely a few new ones. Especially useful with PCB work.

Thanks!

For now, just plugging along!
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