Harvesting SMD IC's with rework station.

Once a year or so I sort my years collection of similarly salvaged ICs on leading first 2 digits. I use standard clear celluloid tubes, for storage, that I've added a stripe of that window foil gummmed Al tape along each tube for ESD purposes.

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

I think the correct term is starving student.

I used to do that clamping one end of the board in a vice, heating the board with a propane torch, pulling back on the board, and launching the components (and solder blobs) in the opposite direction. It worked amazingly well, even for through hole components.

Fairly small. 3 seconds at 350C isn't going to do much. You can probably do some damage is you overheat, or thermal shock the parts, but in general, they should survive. Whether the original components are any good is subject to some speculation. After 20 years, you'll start to see the effects of package leakage, vibration, broken wire bonds, water incursion, etc. I suggest you use IC sockets on your random non-critical projects.

Google finds hundreds of hits under "IC tubes" and "package carriers". For example:

Excellent, thanks for the advice. Most of the boards I am harvesting from are old computer-related boards that were never used, or were used very little. I have had many jobs in the IT industry and used to snatch up any old (but new or nearly new) equipment I saw, regardless of whether I needed it or not :)

Thanks, Jeff. I honestly can't explain why I didn't find any when looking before, I think I was using the search term "ESD storage tubes" maybe that was the reason!

Thanks again.

Excellent, thanks for the advice. Most of the boards I am harvesting from are old computer-related boards that were never used, or were used very little. I have had many jobs in the IT industry and used to snatch up any old (but new or nearly new) equipment I saw, regardless of whether I needed it or not :)

Thanks, Jeff. I honestly can't explain why I didn't find any when looking before, I think I was using the search term "ESD storage tubes" maybe that was the reason!

Thanks again.

I just put mine in small paper bags ! The type used for confectionary about 4" x 6".

I stick mine on sheets of Velostat (black, conductive) foam, cut to fit my parts drawers. It seems to work okay.

I usually leave stuff on the board until I need it. It is too easy to lose or damage off the board. Most stuff is protected as long as it is on the board. Besides it takes too much labor and materials to deal with many devices that no one needs for few that are worthwhile. It is good practice for rework though.

Bad idea. I did the same thing in the 1970's and 80's. Much later, when I pulled out the IC's, the leads were gone. What happened is that the foam absorbed moisture from the air, held onto it, and slowly corroded the leads. In addition, some of the black foam deteriorated into a crumbly mess. There are apparently different types (neoprene, polyethylene, etc) of foam.

Black conductive foam is probably adequate for storing IC's for a few years, but as I discovered, not for 20-30 years.

There was an article on the topic in May 1992 QST titled "Black Conductive Component-Protection Foam Damages Parts (Mitchell): Feb, p.

Respect. The idea of using SMD bits for home projects makes me sweat. ;-)

Please do, I'd be interested in reading it.

See:

If you don't believe it, I have my pile rotting foam and rusted IC's in the closet. I'll post a photo when (and if) I recover from my latest culinary disaster.

seconded This is my experience, from my tips files. When I ran a shop I had the example of this hanging up, 0.1 inch spaced rust marks in the foam and ICs with rusted through legs

Note of caution for long-term storage of ICs Some black conductive foam is hygroscopic in the long term and can cause complete corrosion of the legs of ICs and trannies etc in an ordinary storage situation ,not necessarily a damp garden shed.

The storage I use is 6 inch long x 1 inch diameter clear celluloid tubes with polythene lids I was lucky to be the only bidder for one lot in an auction , it was 5,000 unused tubes with lids. If you go into a habberdashers they always seem to be used for storing buttons, ask someone there, where they get them from. As I said with a strip of Al stuck along each one seems good enough for ESD

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

Here's an example. My guess is about 15 years in the back of the closet. I'll confess to having a roof leak about 10 years ago, which may have aggravated the problem:

I don't have a sample of the foam that crumbled. Just visualize the black foam turning to anything between dust and crumbs when moved.

Jeff Liebermann wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

you need to use some silica gel packs to remove the moisture from the containers.

Note the big 24 pin chip in the center of the photo and the two 14 pin DIPs to its left. Those were gold plated IC leads. So much for corrosion proofing.

Sure, but it's a bit late for these chips. I think they were in the closet for at least 15 years. Any desiccant would have been saturated with water after a few years unless sealed everything in an airtight container. I could need to renew the silica gel by baking off the moisture, but that would require I setup a proper maintenance schedule. These daze, I just use storage tubes and use the black foam only for short term storage.

Also, I use rice for desiccant in pill bottles, salt shakers, and hygroscopic component containers. Not great, but good enough.

Well, it hasn't happened to me yet, but then the parts I have in foam have only been there for a maximum of about 3 years. I wonder if it's a general problem, or whether it's only a problem for particular brands of foam?

Hm. Sounds like I should replace the black foam in my parts drawers with strips of foil.

To ratchet up the paradigm, Minute Rice works better than the never-been-cooked rice.

The crumbling to dust problem certainly varies with type and manufactory. I have some that are at least 30 years old and are in perfect condition. Others have crumbled to dust. As near as I can tell, the stuff that is fairly brittle and breaks when you bend it has survived. The stuff that is fairly flexible, and bends easily, has crumbled.

As for moisture abosorption, I'll guess(tm) that there some kind of chemical reaction between the graphite impregnated foam and the condensed water. It must be something rather strong because, as is evident in my photo at:

it even corroded gold plated IC leads. I have a difficult time imagining foam and water creating any acid that strong, but it's possible.