Hot Air Soldering...Hack Job with a Hardware Store Heat Gun

A hot air gun will do that too, although you may have better luck with a hot plate running as well to preheat everything. I've used a hot air gun for desoldering but not for soldering. Maybe you could rig up an enclosure where the hot air gun just provided the heat input rather than directly blowing on the board?

I've done both using a cheap hot air gun. Its very convenient for removing multi lead components without causing PCB damage. A hot air pen is better for sot32 style chips. Fitting a new device is simply applying flux paste to the pins on the chip and sitting it back on the board before heating. I use a retort stand to support the PCB over the hot air gun. Components on both sides of a board are a pain particularly if they are under or close to the device you want to remove and replace. One difficulty is components that are glued down. It can prove difficult to break the glue bond.

It'll still discolour the board.. Bummer :(

I'll try preheating on hot plate + hot air soldering on my next project. Will post photo if parts get blown off the board :P

The guys at Sparkfun.com did a nice little test of reflow technologies and it turns out an electric skillet worked just fine.

Yup.. Similarly I've soldered boards on metal plates on a electric kitchen stove. Element 1 plate is preheat. Element 2 is solder.

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I've done it for desoldering as well. The only constructive purpose I've used it for, I think, is ghetto Hot Air Leveling (heat board, wipe off excess solder with rag!), and annealing the board so it's not so damn warped (the 0.03" stock I have is realllly thin for anything wider than an inch).

Tim

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Is that also called 'tinning' ?