for working on the analog board, an ungrounded iron is fine if the board is disconnected from the rest of the machine, and you probably want 20-30 w, using too small an iron makes it take too long to melt the solder and you wind up doing damage to the part and board. as far as the logic board, i would strongly recommend against trying to desolder anything on it. it's a multi layer board and easy to damage. i wouldn't do it without a metcal or similar desoldering setup, and they are expensive, even on ebay. i finally got one last year collecting parts and tips etc. off ebay and it's still expensive. particularly with chips, it's nearly impossible to desolder them without a great iron and allot of practice on other things. i got most of my soldering and desoldering skill one summer when i pulled thousands of parts off of old circuit boards. desoldering parts is actually good practice for soldering as well.
one trick, if a joint partially desolders, it's usually best to resolder it and try again, you need the solder to conduct heat through the hole to the other solder, once most of the solder is gone it's very hard to get enough heat to melt the solder on the far side. solder braid is good, i've really only had good luck with the suction devices on single sided boards. any of the online parts dealers will have them, mcm.com and digikey.com come to mind. if you haven't soldered allot you should really practice on some simple projects, heathkit used to sell some easy kits to help people learn to solder. alternately, you can by a perf board with pads from radioshack and a bag of resistors or other parts and just use them for practice, both soldering and desoldering. honestly, the best way to pull a chip off a board is to slice the leads with a razor blade and then pull the pins out one by one, it's very hard to get all the pins desoldered well enough that you don't pull the plating out of the hole, do that and you've got problems! also learn well to keep your tip cleaned and well tinned, where i used to work i ran my iron 50 deg cooler than any one else, and still soldered faster because i took good care of the tip. i always had to rehab the tip after someone else had used it. -------- > >And one last question before I get down to work for real... > > > >Pina recommends a grounded soldering pencil for working on circuit boards. > >I have been casually looking around but have only seen ungrounded > >(two-prong) soldering irons at Sears, etc. Any recommendations for specific > >models of soldering equipment? Recommendations for a vacuum desoldering > >tool would also be welcome. ---------- -- "Promise me, promise me this day, promise me now..." he asked. "Even as they strike you down, you will remember: humanity is not our enemy. The only thing worthy of you is compassion...Hatred will never let you face the beast in human beings. One day, when you face the beast alone, with your courage intact, your eyes kind...out of your smile will bloom a flower. and...on the long, rough road, the sun and the moon will continue to shine." Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist monk -- Compact Macs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/>. Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Compact Macs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/compact.shtml> The FAQ: <http://macfaq.org/> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive:<http://www.mail-archive.com/compact.macs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
