I am trying to dismantle and rebuild my control panel. I have LED’s and solder-terminal push-buttons that I’d like to remove. I’m struggling with un-soldering. (Heck, I’m just learning to solder, much less UN). I can melt the solder, of course, but not remove it so that I can untwist LED leads, etc. What’s the best way?
The best way is to purchase new LEDs and switches instead of trying to unsolder old ones, because too much heat applied in the process of unsoldering can destroy them. If you must try unsoldering, you need to find a “solder sucker” to remove the old, excess solder and clean out the solder eyelets.
Jack,
There’s also a product called solder wick that works really well. It comes in a spool and is essentially a braided “ribbon” of copper.
You lay the solder wick over the excess solder (or the item you want to unsolder) and apply the solder iron directly on top of the solder wick. When the solder “liquefies”, it’s absorbed up into the solder wick. In order to absorb any more solder, you must place a fresh section of solder wick to the part.
Jack, I found a link about desoldering for you:
http://www.aaroncake.net/electronics/desolder.htm
Hope that helps…
Tom
Radio Shack sells a product (can’t remember the name) but it copper mesh and you spread it out to about 1/4" you stick in on the joint and then touch your soldering iron to it and it wicks up the solder. a Good pair of needle nose pliers will help as well.
Working around electronic equipment, especially on PC boards, I would NOT recommend using Solder Wick (aka, desolder braid). The way this works is it has a dry solder flux embedded in the copper braid, which of course, leaves a flux residue on anything it touches. Plus it’s very hard to use on solder type switch terminals and the like.
A much better way of removing solder is a device called a solder sucker. As the name implies, it uses a vacuum to remove the solder from a joint once it’s melted. The manual ones look like this:
http://www.briefcasetools.com/product.asp?product=12581+TL
You push in the yellow tip (right side of picture) to **** the spring, touch your soldering iron to the joint and melt the solder. Then cover the solder joint as best you can with the tool tip (white on left side of picture), then press the yellow button in the center of the picture. This releases the spring and sucks the solder out of the joint. The next time you **** the tool, it pushes out the solder removed from the last joint. (this whole paragraph takes about 2-3 seconds to do). I’ve had one for YEARS and it still works fine, just remember to release the spring (not cocked) when you store it. Plus, they’re not real expensive.
“Solder wik” and a soldering iron with a built in “solder sucker” squeeze bulb have worked for me on all types of connections including PC board components.
Just like soldering, unsoldering takes a little bit of practice.
Quick and dirty method that I’ve seen people in the shop do - heat connection, hold upside down and tap so that the solder falls off. This will make a nice mess of solder drops all over the work area and maybe your lap. do NOT try this at home.
[:D]
Good luck.
If the leads are twisted it’s almost a hopeless cause. You’d have to heat the twist to melt the solder, quickly try to untwist while the solder was hot enough, and then reheat. Again and again. That’s a lot of heat and mechanical stress on whatever you’re trying to separate.
The item I use to suck up excess/old solder is one those squeeze bulb they use to clean out a baby’s nose. You can find them in any dept store.
That would work fine until you melt the tip of the bulb syringe. [:0]
That has never happened. In the event it does, Wal-mart is ten minutes away.
The ones designed for unsoldering have teflon tips. They can stand the heat. Eventually they wear out, but it takes years. My personal preference is a solder sucker, the kind with the spring-loaded plunger inside. I don’t have much luck with the wick, except on extremely tiny connections on commercial printed circuit boards. But, if you’ve twisted a couple of wires together and soldered them, neither wick nor sucker will get it all off.
Thanks everyone. I bought a solder-sucker, and am having success with it… except as many said whrer things a re to twisted to save. Good little adition to my toolbox!
Jack, did yours come with cleaning instructions? Once every year or so, unless you use them in an industrial enviornmnet, they need a good cleaning. The top, right at the release button comes off with a quarter turn and exposes the plunger. Clean the solder residue and old grease off it and relube with a silicone grease.