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Soldering, time for hot air?

I just replaced a Cyrix surface mount 486 cpu this weekend with my conventional Edsyn temp controlled soldering station. I cut the old chip body off, cleaned the pads, and used the my own version of the "flood and wick off" the extra method. The results were good and it works fine but there must be a better way.

I was looking on ebay and it looks like there are some affordable "Hot Air" soldering stations. I really don't want to drop a grand on one for hobby work but I would like to be able to do more of this type of thing. So, are the ones that you see new for $150.00 to $200.00 any good? Can you get parts and different tips for them, and should I stick with one brand over another?

Here is a link to a couple pictures of the board with the CPU that I replaced.

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Thanks for any suggestions and Happy New Year to everyone here.

Jeff (jeff at newsguy dot com)

Reply to
Jeff
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I built my own; it works well and has adjustments for temp and airflow. Perhaps this is an alternative to a purchase. Please see

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Regards,

Michael

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msg

Web-Tronics has some affordable units that look like re-branded Xytronic. Howard Electronics has the real Xytronic units (also mostly affordable). I've purchased equipment from each and haven't had any issues.

Hoods are often interchangeable but do check the dimensions, of course.

You also may not need as many hoods as you imagine. There's a good tutorial on using hot air over at Sparkfun where they mostly use a single pipe hood. Don't miss the videos.

Finally, also check out the ChipQuik system. If you don't do a lot of rework then it may be a better route. It really does work; I've used it myself on some 0.5mm TQFP packages and was able to reuse the part and the board (no clipping!).

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Rich Webb     Norfolk, VA
Reply to
Rich Webb

I'm in the UK and bought one of these:-

which I'm sure is available elsewhere. Remarkable value for money. I know of a repair shop where one is in heavy use and it seems to have survived for a couple of years.

Only thing I dislike about it is it runs when you first power it up and scares the life out of you - if it's on a master circuit like in my workshop. I find it a decent addition - but not a replacement - to my conventional de-solder station.

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*Real men don't waste their hormones growing hair

    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW
                  To e-mail, change noise into sound.
Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Looks very similar to the Xytronic I have. Probably one factory makes 'm all and silkscreens on the various labels. ;-)

Interesting picture on that site, though. They either got the tool hanger on upside down or that's another one of your "we drive on the *correct* side of the road in the UK" issues.

Only kidding, of course. Happy New Year!

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Rich Webb     Norfolk, VA
Reply to
Rich Webb

Good for you! That removal can't have been easy.

There's a good removal solution that works without extra soldering hardware, called 'Chip-quik'; it's a very low melting point solder, you just clean, flux, add the special solder, then the whole chip lifts up at circa 100C (which is the melting point of the alloy). Of course, it needs to be cleaned up before re-soldering with real solder. The removed part doesn't need any leads clipped, though.

Reply to
whit3rd

Depending on how much you need to do, you can do considerable soldering with a variable paint stripper gun. They're power controlled, so the temp varies with air flow, but you can still do a reasonable job with a homebrew head/baffle assembly and a thermometer.

Another thing that works way better than I expected is a Portasol butane torch with the catalytic hot-air tip. Works great for small stuff. If you use the hot air or a hotplate to preheat the board, you can use the butane torch to quickly reach the melting point and do rather large stuff. The torch puts the heat in a small space right where you need it.

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Reply to
mike

Yup - a bit like electric drills. Dozens of makes from one factory.

So they have - never noticed it. ;-) Probably assembled by the art department. ;-)

And to you and everyone.

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*The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up *

    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW
                  To e-mail, change noise into sound.
Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

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