De-solder tools

[C Moore]

I have been using the tool in the link below for about one year. It worked perfectly until just recently. Now it clogs/jams all of the time, even with a new tip. I am not sure why it has become so problematic, but it has.
What are you guys using for de-solder work?
Thank You

http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/OK- ... 2fuuJuk%3d

[Sonny ReVerb]

I use a Hakko 808. I scored a used one on eBay.

[Phil_S]

Soldapult is the brand to get. I think this is the one I've got.
http://www.amazon.com/Edsyn-Soldapullt- ... 226&sr=8-6
Takes lots of abuse. When it jams up, it can be disassembled and cleaned, which always restores it. I've yet to really burn the tip, which I sometimes hold against the iron in tight places.

[tribi9]

Soldapult is the brand to get. I think this is the one I've got.
http://www.amazon.com/Edsyn-Soldapullt- ... 226&sr=8-6
Takes lots of abuse. When it jams up, it can be disassembled and cleaned, which always restores it. I've yet to really burn the tip, which I sometimes hold against the iron in tight places.

I have one of them and it never clogs. I've had it for about a year now. Those big blue ones suck. I bought one and it only lasted me a few days.

[rp]

I had a big plastic blue one a long while back - was USA made, eventually the plastic tabs that hold it together will fail from the shock of the big metal spring (duh)- so it's made to fail, but it did take a while. Didn't clog too bad.

I tried the blue one from Radio Shack cause it's made of metal and was available. It clogs all the time, the design isn't thought out.

Someone needs to make one of these things with a teflon tip.

Soldapult will be next. I will lust for the Hakko.

Anyone know of a cheap source of solder wick? May fave is the Chemtronics size #5 80-5-5, but it's pricey. Maybe I should just stop screwing up or changing things.

[billyz]

I used to use them Suckers but now I get along with solder braid or wick. A little flux and it really draws the solder.

[Gaz]

I have the one that the OP has, which does have a Teflon tip. It does clog occasionally, but it's easy to open up and empty out. I've literally desoldered two amps with it, and it only cost $5 or so. Didn't realize it got much fancier than the one you have!

[xtian]

Yeah, don't miss the fact that you can pull off the "business end" to expose the spring on the inside, which usually gets coated with solder. You should be able to clean it out, as long as it's vacuum is still intact.

[selloutrr]

I find you have to take them apart from time to time and empty out the loose solder that builds up in them.

I like the manual solder sucker for cleaning up holes and turrets

I use a rework station for PCB work.

[Gibsonman63]

I have been using the big blue solder sucker for a couple of years with no problems. Just take it apart to clean it occaisionally, clean the spring off every once and a while and lubricate the o-ring with vasoline to keep things moving.

[kec]

I've been using the black (ESD) version of what the OP has. Got it from my previous job (don't know the brand). No problems with it at all - just an occasional cleaning. Tip is teflon too.

[Cliff Schecht]

I rarely find myself in a situation where the right gauge solder braid and some creativity won't do the trick. A good example is recently I managed to flow some solder through a 9-pin socket and filled up one of the pin connections with solder. I took a small piece of braid, fluxed the crap out of it, dropped it into the "ruined" socket position and it sucked the solder right out. Something else to remember is that gravity can be your friend! If you can't get a reliable connection because the solder keeps flowing off of the joint, sometimes I like to flip the work over and solder from the bottom side.

Another useful trick for removing solder is to heat up the soldered area and give the board a good whack on the bench. The solder comes flying out and usually leaves a really clean hole. It just takes practice not making a mess every time.

[rp]

Another useful trick for removing solder is to heat up the soldered area and give the board a good whack on the bench. The solder comes flying out and usually leaves a really clean hole. It just takes practice not making a mess every time.

Yes, but don't solder in your underwear.

So the big plastic blue from the OP definitely has a teflon tip? This must be why I liked it and it worked well till it blew apart. I expect suckers to clog after a bit, but not with every other suck like the Radio Shack one, which is lower profile and otherwise well made.

I try and use the solder sucker just to save on wick otherwise I would just use wick.

[gearhead]

I've been using this $5 puppy from Radio Shack for a couple years, and works great. Lotsa suction with the bulb squeezed down. Lower tech, but sometimes simpler is better.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... id=prod_cs

[Dai H.]

FWIW, I hated those spring operated deals and liked using wick or the type with the rubber bulb and Teflon tip. Recently though, I decided to have another stab (after a string of semi-successes) at removing alu electros from mobo PCBs, and thought of trying to "attack" it from both sides using an iron combined with a economy desoldering iron after I read of someone doing so apparently with success. So I bought one of these:

http://web.kyoto-inet.or.jp/people/tomo ... ttaro.html

and something I read in the instructions that was interesting was that it was recommended to add some grease inside the part that the vacuumed solder ends up in, so *possibly* greasing the internals can help yield a smoother operation--keep the mechanism from jamming up or whatever happens when it doesn't go well.