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I purchased a Weller reflow set

Jan Cumps

The title says it all. I have a Weller solder station. They have IC reflow gizmos that work together with its hot air gun.

image
image source: sinuss.nl, the element14 retailer in Belgium and the Netherlands

These are little ovens, that you put on top of the IC you want to rework. Then you put the hot air pencil inside, to flow the solder.
There's a chip lifter (think: coal mine headframe) that can then lift the IC.
It can also be used to place ICs. Should help me with BGA designs.

It may be over-fancy. Paul Daniels and Louis Rossmann do all of this with just a heat gun. But I'm not that skilled - don't do it enough to be repeatedly successful.
My kit is also expensive. The one I bought, with support for 10x10 mm to 33x33 mm (with 6 steps in between), costs 500 €. An amount that I do not easily give away for tools.

Here's a video from Weller:

I have now burned my budget for the next two years (three years actually, but last year I didn't buy anything). It 'd better work as promised.
Send me your old PCBs, so that I can practice.

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  • I tried to use the ovens on non-IC parts: connectors, transistors, electrolytic caps. Without the lifting mechanism, just put the nozzle on top to concentrate the heat.
    After a few seconds, remove the nozzle, and complete the exercise with the air pencil and some tweezers only.

    In most cases, it made desoldering faster. With a few SMD plastic connectors, I managed to lift them off fast, before the plastic started to give away - something that fails often when I use an iron or heat gun in isolation.

    One thing failed miserably: an SMD electrolyte cap: that one exploded inside the little oven after a few seconds. Definitely not a good match with this desoldering kit.

    Action photo:

    image

  • in reply to Jan Cumps

    For the connectors, one idea (I have not tried it) could be to obtain some ceramic paper, and cut a small piece into the shape of the inside of your metal cover, and pierce some holes or cut out notches all around the sides, so that all the heat hits the sides of the connector only. Basicallty the ceramic paper acting like the space shuttle tiles Joy The ceramic paper is cheap (it's used for art/craft pottery etc). However the suction won't suck up the part, but I guess for a connector the suction won't work all that well anyway, so maybe that's no big issue.

    (Just remembered I may have some of that paper, I'll take a look).

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  • in reply to Jan Cumps

    For the connectors, one idea (I have not tried it) could be to obtain some ceramic paper, and cut a small piece into the shape of the inside of your metal cover, and pierce some holes or cut out notches all around the sides, so that all the heat hits the sides of the connector only. Basicallty the ceramic paper acting like the space shuttle tiles Joy The ceramic paper is cheap (it's used for art/craft pottery etc). However the suction won't suck up the part, but I guess for a connector the suction won't work all that well anyway, so maybe that's no big issue.

    (Just remembered I may have some of that paper, I'll take a look).

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