Are you a solder-wick dude or a vacuum tool man?

[WD8BIL]

I use the vacuuuum,Derb. It's a nice Pace unit. But ya gotta keep'em clean.
I clean mine every time I turn it on. Been working for 15 years now.
A good assortment of tips is critical. The right tip make the job.

[k4kyv]

I use about every method imaginable both for point-to-point wiring and PC boards: heat and bang, suck and wick.  I have a couple of those spring loaded suckers made in Sweden, that I bought back in the early 80's.  The first thing I always did was to cut off the rod that goes through the nozzle, supposedly to keep it cleared out.  Mine would always jam with solder and push the nozzle off when I tried to use it, so I just cut the extension off with wire cutters, and manually clear the nozzle when necessaly, usually with a small Allen wrench.

I sometimes use both wick and the sucker in stubborn cases.

[N3DRB The Derb]

I'm hoping I can find one of the mid 80's PACE blue top units at a fester someday. The GE carbon vane motor in those things is a wonderous thing. it wouls b cool if I could find one with my own inspectors stamp & number on it. I was inspectore #12. 

[Opcom]

I use all. wick, spring-vacuum tool, and Hakko or equivlent electic vacuum desolderer.

I have used the hot air systems with nozzles for the SMT postage stamps and also a handheld resistance soldering tool but I did not care much for that. The best electic vacuum model I had required 60PSI air and used a venturi to make vacuum. Lots of it. It would suck and slurp the molten solder till it was gone and was perfect for double sided through-hole and plated through-hole. sold-r-vac or something, was in the 1980's.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

man, I hate vacuum solder removers. Always been a solder-wick dude, always will be.

What do you like and why?

I used one of those big blue Sold-a-pult suckers until a couple years ago when it took an unexpected trip across the radio room and met a wall as a result of a...reflex reaction. Yeah, that's it. Never had good luck with the wick as it seemed to involve dragging it around to and fro at times to get it to work, or having it suck away heat in order to work properly. Then there was my Scottish blood, which prefers not to throw money away on stuff that will get thrown away. The -pult was reusable for years, just cock and go with the occasional emptying and cleaning required. Solder wick gets thrown out and you gotta buy more.

Never tried one of the vacuum solder stations but intend to. Many good reports on how well they function along with speeding up the process.

[WA1GFZ]

I got my mil cert on wick. Vacuum may have ESD issues. I don't think the production people here use them any more. not an issue with tubes though

[Bacon, WA3WDR]

I sometime use a solder-sucker to remove large blobs of excess solder, such as left-over low-temp solder when removing a big IC.  I use wick to remove smaller amounts.

[N3DRB The Derb]

guess i should have specified  a non motorized vacuum unit. I meant the blue sod-a-pult  units.

[WA1GFZ]

Those spring loaded suckers are ESD generators

[Bacon, WA3WDR]

One thing I don't like about the spring-loaded thingies is that they tend to get little solder bits all over the place.  If they are ESD generators, that's another negative.

1/4" wick is nice for removing large amounts of solder, but I feel like I'm wasting wick material.  That's why I would use the spring boingie sucker.  I would not have expected an ESD issue with the sucker, because the moving parts are mostly metal (except for the plastic ones).  Now I'm glad mine have mostly fallen apart.  I guess I'll stock up on 1/4" wick.

[WA1GFZ]

wide flux works even better with a little flux.

[KA1ZGC]

wide flux works even better with a little flux.

Not only that, wide wick works better with a little wick. 

[Bacon, WA3WDR]

Heh heh, yes, I add flux to the wick, because it helps it soak up that solder.

[WA1GFZ]

another trick is touch a little solder on the back side of the wick to transfer heat faster. This tins it and will give a better connection to the iron.
I use a straight pin to clear component holes on planes rather than getting it too hot. A ground plane with a via I sometimes take a small PCB drill and drill out the solder to avoid overheating.

[Bacon, WA3WDR]

Yes, sometimes just a little bit of solder in the wick makes a better thermal connection and also helps start the flow from the board into the wick.

[kb3ouk]

Most of the time when i need to desolder stuff, i try to heat it up then drop the iron and pull the lead out before the solder cools again. Or i get tired of that and just get the wire cutters and snip the lead.
Shelby KB3OUK

[Tim WA1HnyLR]

When I would strip old hollow state color tv sets for their parts that were on pc boards,I would use the following procedure.Affter stripping off the heavy components from the chassis I would  flip the chassis upside down and wave the Burnz-O-matic prophane fart gass torch over the PC board until it started smoking. I would then drop the chassis on the floor. Many of the components would drop out. I would repeat the procedure until no more components would drop. other than that all other methods on this thead are used here.
Tim WA1HnyLR

[W1RKW]

A lot of times the type of solder tip makes the difference in making solder wick perform well. I find a screwdriver or flat tip works better than a conical or thin point tip.  I imagine that there is better heat transfer to the wick and the extra tip mass helps.

[WA1GFZ]

I agree Bob. Larger tip is much more efficient heating the joint and wick.

[John Holotko]

REAL MEN suck up the molten solder by mouth !!  Nothing like the taste of hot molten solder !! AhhhhRRrrrrr

[KA1ZGC]

Careful, John. Telling a joke on this thread might get your post pulled. 

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Only if the joke violates the clearly stated rules.

[Vortex Joe - N3IBX]

I be a vacuum tool remover kinda guy; because I have two of them and it's what I've become accustomed to. I've tried the solder wick method and haven't had the same results as with the vacuum tool. It's probably beacuse I've grown acccutomed to one method over the other.

If the shoe fits with one method over another you wear it!

Regards,
           Joe Cro N3IBX

[Vortex Joe - N3IBX]

REAL MEN suck up the molten solder by mouth !!  Nothing like the taste of hot molten solder !! AhhhhRRrrrrr

John,
       Would one who uses the method you described be called a "Lead Head"? - hi hi!

       Personally, I prefer solder fumes over the taste. I become aroused to do more work whilst sniffing the fumes!

[John Holotko]

REAL MEN suck up the molten solder by mouth !!  Nothing like the taste of hot molten solder !! AhhhhRRrrrrr

John,
       Would one who uses the method you described be called a "Lead Head"? - hi hi!

       Personally, I prefer solder fumes over the taste. I become aroused to do more work whilst sniffing the fumes!

Ha !! I feel the same way. Actually since I was a kid I always loved the bittersweet smell of the hot rosin core smoke.  Anytime I smell that hot rosin I always get the inspiration to heat up the iron and start working on one of my old boatanchors... ot to build something.

Fortunately I still have several full rolls of the good old lead/tin solder. It should last me a while. I'm not too keen on this newer lead free stuff. I hear that its more prone to bad solder connections.