[vcf-midatlantic] Care and feeding of my desoldering station?

[Systems Glitch]

> Other guys that I worked with would make fun of me because I was so meticulous, and yet they would come to my bench to use mine because theirs didn't work as well.

I stuck with soldapult style tools and solder wick for *years* because of poorly maintained Hakko stations at a previous job. They were so buggered up I brought my own soldapult to use. I just assumed they were total wrecks to operate, since every single one was like that, and if supposedly one of the best was that bad, I figured it was something I didn't need!

That, and they used the gun shaped handles. I bought the pencil shaped handle to go with my 472D and IMO it's a much better choice.

> A tip about desoldering: add fresh solder to the joints that you want to desolder before using the sucker. 

Floats the scale/dross. 

> plus it adds a little flux which also helps.

I also will swab boards with flux if they're being particularly stubborn.

> A small amount of solder residue doesn't seem like much on a single pin, but multiplied by 20 can cause problems.

I take a knife or blunt nose pliers and poke each/every pin to the other side of its hole, if the IC doesn't fall right out. You'll hear a little pop as whatever solder is left in the through hole lets go.

Another point on cleaning: get a tip polishing bar, and use it. I currently have a Weller WPB-1:

http://www.weller-toolsus.com/weller-wpb1-polishing-bar.html

The usual suspects (Plato et al.) have their own, I suspect they're all whitelabeled products, they're even the same dimensions. Good for both soldering iron tips and desoldering station tips. You can use them with hot or cold tips, but if you're running the iron really hot, you'll wear the bar down faster. Small investment for the extended life you'll get from tips!

W.R.T. the desoldering station, I always leave a ball of solder completely covering the suction hole when I shut it down. Not only does it help reduce corrosion while the iron is cooling down, but if it won't easily take fresh solder, I know it's time to polish it.

Thanks,
Jonathan