Desoldering vacuum thingers

[inverseroom]

Do these things work? I want to do a bit of board recapping over my winter vacation and want the process to go as smoothly as possible. At the moment all I have is a desoldering bulb.

Are they better than wick? Do you recommend one in particular?

[Scodiddly]

If you're willing to spend $500-600 you can get a very nice desoldering station. I have one at work, and while I still need to use a bit of wick now and then it's very convenient.

On the cheap end, a "Soldapult" type of spring-loaded sucker is best. Way way way better than a bulb. I still use the sucker on tube amps and other areas with large amounts of solder.

But there isn't much middle ground - some people have reported on $150 all-in-one desoldering guns, but those don't look especially solid.

[inverseroom]

Oh my God no. The entire mixer only cost me $135. I just would like something less clumsy than the desoldering bulb. Perhaps I will check out this soldapult...

[djimbe]

I always sing the praises of the Hakko 808...about $200 for an all-in-one powered solder vacuum. I've been using one for several years now and it's never let me down. I'm not a high volume user, at least not like a pro maintnenance person, but I work it pretty hard. Tube amps, refurbishing pre's or old channel strips, the double sided boards in my MCI stuff, all kindsa things. Used it last weekend to completely recap a Rheem MkVII and the next day to fix a pair of Leslie preamps for a 145 cab.

The spring loaded ones will work passably, but since getting the Hakko I've used nothing else. It's paid for itself many, many times over in the last 3 years, just in time and frustration savings.

[Rodgre]

I use a regular spring action desoldering pump and a desoldering braid all the time with no problems. Much better than a bulb, in my opinion.

While a "real" desoldering/reworking station is the best way to do this kind of work, a bicycle can still get you to the store. It just won't be as comfortable as a Mercedes.

Roger

[A.David.MacKinnon]

I use a regular spring action desoldering pump and a desoldering braid all the time with no problems.Roger

Me too. The spring loaded thing can be a bit messy - it sometimes tends to spray mini blobs of solder - but it's nothing that's hard to clean up and it works well for the price.

[ckeene]

i wonder how hard it would be to DIY a vacuum desolderer

[gregnrom]

If you think you will be doing a lot of this in the future, I would recommend either Den-on Instruments SC-7000Z, or a Pace reworking station. Both are $400+ investments, are high-maintenance, and are worth it.
If you are just doing a few boards, the radio shack red balloon de-solderer will do you fine at $9.
You will know when you need to make the upgrade.

[eeldip]

i use the spring loaded thingy. i got mine from radio shack. it rules.

WAY better then the bulbs. or at least, works for me better. somehow. i think its cause with the bulb, when you SUCK, it wants to move, and the movement causes the tip to tilt a bit.

the spring loader is easier to keep on target and get the SUCK right.

[inverseroom]

OK, I'm goin' spring loader. I'll get a wick too.

I want to recap not only this mixer over the winter, but my entire Yamaha YC25D, which bleeds horribly. You can pretty much always hear the sound of every single oscillator whining at once, very faintly though the output, even when you're not pressing any keys.

[Scodiddly]

Yeah, not to pimp the expensive solution too much. The spring-loaded thingy is where you want to go in the near future.

It's like this - the $500 desoldering station is 100%.
The spring-loaded sucker is 50%.
The bulb is 5%.

The spring-loaded sucker is a no-brainer for you. If you start rebuilding mixers for other people, then you want the $500 unit.

[digitaldrummer]

+1 for the "Soldapult".

under $20 and I've used one to recap over 30 PM1000's now and then some... works well if you are careful. not so well for very tiny components. for example, its a bit trickier replacing caps on the MXl 603/991 mics as those boards have much smaller components, holes, traces, etc.

Mike

[leigh]

I use a regular spring action desoldering pump and a desoldering braid all the time with no problems. Much better than a bulb, in my opinion.

Yah, +1 to that.

Braid/wick is good for detail work, but it would eat up a lot of wick if that's all I used.

Been using the same spring-action tool for years, probably bought from Radio Shack, since it's not that Soldapult one. If I was doing tech work professionally, I'd spring for a powered vacuum unit, but the little spring one has been just fine so far.

Leigh

[darjama]

OK, I'm goin' spring loader. I'll get a wick too.

I want to recap not only this mixer over the winter, but my entire Yamaha YC25D, which bleeds horribly. You can pretty much always hear the sound of every single oscillator whining at once, very faintly though the output, even when you're not pressing any keys.

I'm secretly in love with that sound from my YC30.

[inverseroom]

OK, I'm goin' spring loader. I'll get a wick too.

I want to recap not only this mixer over the winter, but my entire Yamaha YC25D, which bleeds horribly. You can pretty much always hear the sound of every single oscillator whining at once, very faintly though the output, even when you're not pressing any keys.

I'm secretly in love with that sound from my YC30.

I didn't mind it until I started mic'ing the organ through an amp...the amp seems to hugely magnify it. Maybe I should save myself days of labor and just use a gate...