Why is the engineer any better than the generic cheapies?
I've got a Soldapullt, which is bit like a reverse air pistol, and a couple of cheapies and I usually use the cheapies because they are smaller. I also had a desoldering iron with a one shot pump, but I found that was useless.
I've always found solder pumps a bit hit and miss, sometimes they work like magic and sometimes they don't.
Yeah that's the problem I had. But most of the time they didn't work and you ended up knackering something in the process.
Good video here where one actually works ![Laughing :-DD](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/smiley_laughing.gif)
https://youtu.be/WyiA4Giw5IM?t=295
Actually worth watching for any Tek fans as well.
Nah, according to some folk here that is pure crap because that engineer uses the Paul Carlson method of removing components from the mother board. Wrench parts off like can so they say damage pads and tracks etc
![Scared :scared:](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/scared.gif)
Sometimes the "right way" doesn't work.
We had a special relay on a bit of NEC Tx equipment which had multiple pins connected to the groundplane, with only a few "active" pins not connected that way.
As far as we could see, this was for a combination of shielding & mechanical stability.
It was, inevitably, faulty!
![Shocked :o](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/shocked.gif)
With all that groundplane, & the metal of the quite large relay acting as heatsinks, we couldn't make any headway with solder suckers or desoldering braid, so invested in a new Pace desoldering station.
The job said "Pshaw! I laugh at your Pace!",
![Cool 8)](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/cool.gif)
so sterner means had to be employed.
We ended up sliding the blade of a Stanley knife into the very small gap under the device & slicing all the legs off.
It was then easy enough to individually remove the pins from the board.
We gained a nice desoldering station from the episode, so it wasn't a total waste!