On 3/24/10 2:20 PM, Bruce Johnson wrote:
On Mar 24, 2010, at 12:31 PM, Jim Scott wrote:
The most difficult part -- aside from my steep soldering learning
curve ascent -- was removing the original capacitors. Apple used
lead-free solder in those iMacs, and I literally burned up several
solder guns of increasingly higher heat capacity before I got one that
could melt the original solder enough to free the bad caps.
You need to get a decent temp regulated soldering iron, Harbor frieght
used to have one for about $40, a quick googling finds them at
$30-$120-ish.
One of the mistakes people commonly make in soldering is using too small
a soldering iron. What happens with a too small iron is the iron heats
things up but the heat is conducted away to fast. The heat spreads out
and damages things but it either doesn't reach the melting point of
solder or it takes too long.
For this sort of job I would probably use a 25W iron or perhaps a 40W,
depending on the size of the caps.
Of course the other big mistake is to use too much heat.
--
Clark Martin
Redwood City, CA, USA
Macintosh / Internet Consulting
"I'm a designated driver on the Information Super Highway"
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