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Desoldering Point to Point techniques

oldvinyldude

oldvinyldude

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I need help with desoldering:

I have been progressing in my repair techniques for gear, and have learned to solder with good success.
I have also been successful replacing some caps, and other through hole components. I have a spring loaded desoldering pump, and one day, I might treat myself to a Hakko vacuum pump. I do have a Hakko iron-well worth the cost.

Now, what I am asking here, is good techniques to remove point to point wiring connections. I have a piece of gear, where a fuse was soldered to pigtails, then wrapped around a binding post, and soldered. Someone foolishly just cut out the fuse, leaving the pigtail ends wrapped around the post. I want to remove these remnants and wrap fresh wire around the post, so my challenge is to remove the old-first.

I seem to have poor luck with solder wick-I am guessing that this is the way?-but perhaps there are other techniques I should learn. If wick is the way to go, perhaps someone here can suggest a specific wick material, as I see many products out there. My wick just never seems to wick the solder. Even adding flux on the wick does not result in much, if any wicking action.

Thanks in advance, for any suggestions. I am very grateful for what I have learned thus far, and continue to improve with help from you kind folks.
 
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As someone who opts to remove all left over remnents of prior work, I settled on a vacuum pump. I too battled with wicks and spring loaded pumps, but nothing, I say nothing compares to a vacuum pump, particularly if you have a lot of work ahead of you. The saving of time and frustration is well worth it.. While I purchased a Hakko, there are other powered vacuum pumps availble for the weekend warrior.
 
I only use wick and manual pumps. But I have been doing it "professionally" since 1985.

Practice makes close to perfect.
 
You need to put flux on your wick. And what's the matter with leaving the pigtail of the old part and attaching to it? Was the factory solder job so bad that you are willing to risk frying everything to get it out so you can do YOUR solder job? Or worse yet, breaking off a lug on a tube socket, for instance? Old pigtails are your friend. Learn how to make use of them and you can do beautiful work. There's a time and place to completely erase all evidence of a bad original part so you can have nice clean lugs and solder points. But remember, with all that heat and scraping and tugging, you are weakening the solder log or point quite a bit. You're a doctor of electronic restoration. "First do no harm".
 
Henry Finley said:
You need to put flux on your wick. And what's the matter with leaving the pigtail of the old part and attaching to it? Was the factory solder job so bad that you are willing to risk frying everything to get it out so you can do YOUR solder job? Or worse yet, breaking off a lug on a tube socket, for instance? Old pigtails are your friend. Learn how to make use of them and you can do beautiful work. There's a time and place to completely erase all evidence of a bad original part so you can have nice clean lugs and solder points. But remember, with all that heat and scraping and tugging, you are weakening the solder log or point quite a bit. You're a doctor of electronic restoration. "First do no harm".
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Thanks-seems I need to find a balance between clean work and "do no harm".

Despite me using flux on the wick-I still experience persistent refusal of the wick to actually wick.

Maybe someone here can suggest a specific wick material that they have found works best?
 
I bought a pile of cheap wick from Amazon and it was terrible. the only way it will work is too slather flux all over it before using. I buy the good stuff now and make sure it has rosin coating on it. Having a bit of extra heat for point wiring helps out too...
I have reworked old tube amps with the existing component wiring, just clip the old cap/resistor off at its base and curl the wire to look like a " J " . Do the same on the new component and crimp them together and solder. Makes a good mechanical connection and does no harm to the old solder points.
 
Wick takes its time. I use it all the time on parts I know I'll be replacing, because by the time I've held the iron on it and it starts wicking good, the part is surely fried, along with whatever other part may share the same lug or board trace. That's why I like to cut out parts, leaving as much pigtail to work with as I can. Sometimes I make J hooks out of leads, or make coils to slip over and smash and solder. I do very neat and secure work. Yes, it is evident to another owner years from now that work was done. But they will also see that I was very conservative about causing possible damage.

Edit: I don't buy off Amazon. Go to Mouser or Digikey. Quality work is paramount on this kind of work. Cheap crap has no place.
 
oldvinyldude said:
Thanks-seems I need to find a balance between clean work and "do no harm".

Despite me using flux on the wick-I still experience persistent refusal of the wick to actually wick.

Maybe someone here can suggest a specific wick material that they have found works best?
Click to expand...

i don't do much point to point work but when i do, i use hemostats as a heat sink as low as i can go and usually i add solder and remove the part then clean it up.

if its wirewrapped and soldered to a wirewrap post soldered to a pcb, i'll remove the post and clean it up, file the edges down a touch so they go back in the hole without damaging the trace. then reinstall then make my new connection.
 
No input here from another semi-newb to vintage gear repair/resto, and I am still getting a little better each time with my soldering skills but by no means an expert in any sense of the word. I will confirm that the cheap wick on amazon doesn't work very well despite the reviews. The good stuff (chemwick) has gotten harder to find and while it is worth it, it has gotten quite expensive (last time I saw it listed for around $25).

Although I probably won't do it justice, I ponied up for a Hakko FR-301 that I got for a pretty deep discount due to some prior order issues with the particular retailer. I don't think it's the ideal tool for what you're describing here, but it is an absolute gem for desoldering in general.
 
the cheap wick is absolute garbage, can't agree more on that point. Fluxing it helps but I find it requires too much time and too much heat to get anything done, plus it ends up with a bunch of flux residue left behind to clean up.


I have a Hakko FR-301 desoldering iron that I like quite a bit. Its not really the perfect tool for point to point but I use it to suck away the bulk of the solder first, then I can use an iron and possibly a small pair of wire cutters to get the leads off. Often I snip the wire where it loops, then just fish out the two pieces with small pliers while heating the joint. Can get the same job done with a manual sucker, never had a whole lot of luck with any sort of wick on point to point terminals though.
 
takes a lot of practice, but what works for me is a cheap solder sucker pump(about a c-note's worth, but hakko is best), loading the tip with solder(uses a lot of solder this way), gently applying the molten solder to the old solder and sucking away! if the temp is too high and the tip is not wet, it sucks the trace as well! best thing to do is pick up some junk at the second hand and practice before damaging a real deal unit. gave up on the solder wick bit, mechanical hand pump... it just takes practice- becomes intuitive after awhile. or you can do it by just loading the tip of a solder iron, applying it to the old solder and pushing the component pin through the board(might damage part/ trace) while pulling on the component. or applying a large amount of solder to the pins(a mass), applying the solder tip to the mass and pulling the component when the solder melts. the problem is temperature and the damage that can result. just practice.
 
raycarr00 said:
takes a lot of practice, but what works for me is a cheap solder sucker pump(about a c-note's worth, but hakko is best), loading the tip with solder(uses a lot of solder this way), gently applying the molten solder to the old solder and sucking away! if the temp is too high and the tip is not wet, it sucks the trace as well! best thing to do is pick up some junk at the second hand and practice before damaging a real deal unit. gave up on the solder wick bit, mechanical hand pump... it just takes practice- becomes intuitive after awhile. or you can do it by just loading the tip of a solder iron, applying it to the old solder and pushing the component pin through the board(might damage part/ trace) while pulling on the component. or applying a large amount of solder to the pins(a mass), applying the solder tip to the mass and pulling the component when the solder melts. the problem is temperature and the damage that can result. just practice.
Click to expand...
i used to keep a handfull of those cheapos close at hand, when one clogged i just put it aside and grabbed another. notsomuch after i got my hakko knockoff but there are some instances that the cheapo pump is the best tool for the job. not often but you know when you come across it.

definately must be careful if heating one leg at a time to remove a cap or something because you are going to have to pull at a slight angle and that will put downforce on the opposite leg and possibly push the trace off the board.

i also like to load up all pads to a component with solder as long as they are close enough together and i'm replacing the part . just pull it straight out then clean up the pads.

if i'm recapping a unit that i need to add solder to the pad before desoldering it, i will go thru and add solder to everything all at once. then come back and suck off the solder , one component at a time. this accomplishes 2 things, you dont have to keep putting down the solder to grab the sucker or vice versa and it avoids prolonged heat to the pads.

i have considered myself an excellent solderererer for a long time but these people doing micro-soldering....amazing! i got nothin on them! i don't even want to try it, i think it would be much too stressful for me.
 
yes, impressive. just micro-soldered a used component on a wifi thermostat that fried when replacing the contactor on an a/c condenser...had to use reading glasses and a magnifying glass on top of my own glasses. used a soldering iron and not a heat gun. cleaned the area, applied a bit of solder and positioned part with tweezers to solder at a reduced temp. pain. still buying a new thermostat, though. practice, that's all it is. oh, and a heck of a lot of patience!
 
MANY times it also helps to put on some fresh flux and solder to the connection before you start to de-solder it. I like the wick for many things, an Edsyn "Sold-A-Pullt" for bigger stuff, and my vacuum desoldering station for circuit boards. They're different jobs, so I use different tools. The choice of tool is experience-driven, so keep at it! Good job on learning to solder. It's a very useful skill to have.
 
Hey, I do what those guys above do! As said, there's wick and then there's wick. The bad stuff is useless. I still add flux to the good stuff, but in all honesty I don't like wick much and rarely use it. IMO, it's more thermal mass attached to the joint and contributes to overheating things unless it's working really well. For the typical solder lug, I usually add solder first. It has to be "the good stuff" like Kester 44 with good rosin flux. I make sure the iron tip is properly tinned because you can't get good heat transfer unless it is. The tip has to be large because you want thermal mass in the tip and lots of surface area to transfer heat- I want to get in and out quickly! They sell different tips for a reason and most people choose too small. My sucker of choice is the EDSYN DS017 SOLDAPULLT unless you want to invest in a Hakko or similar. Anything smaller is worthless because they can't develop enough suction or maintain it long enough to get the job done. With that, I heat the joint and remove the bulk of the solder, new and old. There should be little solder left, but the joint will still be solidly attached. At that point I work in the point of a #11 X-ACTO knife blade and start levering the free end of the wire, heating as necessary. If it looks like I can get a pair of small diagonal cutter in there and clip the loop, I do.
 
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