What is desoldering? Desoldering is a technique for removing solder from metal joints. You can do it by using a special desoldering tool, which uses a vacuum to remove the molten solder, or by heating the joint with an iron and then scraping off the melted solder with a tool called a "solder braid."
There are many different ways to desolder electronic components. The best way is to use a solder sucker or pump, but these often do not work well in tight spaces. If you have the time and patience, you can also try heating the solder with a blowtorch before removing it manually. Another technique is using an iron and solder braid to remove the solder from your component. Make sure when using this method, you put the iron on top of the braid so that both heat at once; otherwise, they will cool off too quickly for effective removal of all traces of soldering material.
How does a desoldering gun work?
A desoldering gun, also known as a "solder sucker," is an air pump that operates with manual control. The gun body has two chambers: Compressed air (up to 120 PSI) and solder removal solvent (oil or inert gas). A trigger on the handle controls the suction of air into the barrel through an orifice, which pulls the solder out of the circuit board.
Desoldering is easy. You just need to get the solder hot and then take the wires and put them somewhere else.
How to desolder
1. Heat your soldering iron to around 400°C (752°F) or more. You can check the temperature with a thermometer, but be careful – anything over 100°C is very hot! If you don't have a thermometer, it's enough to make sure that you're pressing the tip of your soldering iron to your component/wire or pad for a second or two. You can then touch it with something metal if you want to see how hot it is.
2. Use some solder wick (a thin strip of metal) to soak up the solder. Do this by putting the wire under one end of the solder wick and touching the iron to the other end.
3. As the wick soaks up the solder, keep pulling it with your fingers until you can't see any more solder on your board or wire. If you're working on a pad/through-hole component, use tweezers (preferably those with a flat tip) instead of your fingers.
4. If there's still solder on your board, keep heating the solder and putting the wick on it until it is completely removed. You should try to remove as much solder as possible at this point because you need access to whatever you are desoldering.
5. Once your solder pad or wire is completely clean, remove the component if you want to. Sometimes removing the solder first will make it easier because there won't be any solder holding it down.
With the right tools and knowledge of what you're working with, desoldering can be as easy as heating solder and using some wick to suck it away. In this article, we talked about how to fix problems with boards or wires. To do that, you can remove solder from them. We hope you will feel more confident after reading this post about tasks like these.