I'm looking for advice from anyone who's dealt with this problem before. I have a computer video card with 4 blown capacitors. Last night I desoldered the capacitors, but most of the holes (vias) are still plugged with solder and I've been unable to clear them. It's this darn lead-free solder combined with a multilayer board and large ground planes. Here's what I tried last night.
1. Holding my iron on the via to melt the solder, then hitting it with a Soldapullt solder sucker.
2. Using desolder wick to suck up the solder.
3. Adding fresh leaded solder and/or liquid flux then trying the solder sucker and wick again.
The holes are still plugged. I have considered several options, anyone know which would be the best (most likely to succeed with lowest chance of damaging the board)?
1. Turn up the heat. I keep my Hakko solder station set around 350 - 400 C, I could turn it up to deliver more heat.
2. I have a heat gun I could use. This might deliver more heat to a larger part of the board thus melting the solder.
3. Try again with solder wick, perhaps turning up the heat and/or using more flux.
4. Try heating the joint and poking a thin piece of metal through, like a small safety pin.
5. Purchase a new tip for my soldering station. Something like the T18-BL (http://www.hakkousa.com/AHPDirect/images/T18-BL.jpg). With a thin sharp point it might be able to reach into the hole (although I'm skeptical it could deliver enough heat all on it's own).
6. I have some ChipQuik low temperature solder I could try melting in.
7. Heat the board up with a hot iron and try using the solder sucker from the opposite side. Difficult to do with only two hands.
8. Use an extremely small drill bit and my drill press to literally drill out the solder. I estimate a 1/64" drill bit would be necessary.
Any advice?
If I can't get the holes clear I have a backup plan. This particular board has both through-holes and surface mount pads for each capacitor. So I could switch to surface mount electrolytics. To me this is plan-B because A) I've already purchased the through-hole capacitors and B) I'm likely to have the same trouble melting solder to the big surface mount pads.
1. Holding my iron on the via to melt the solder, then hitting it with a Soldapullt solder sucker.
2. Using desolder wick to suck up the solder.
3. Adding fresh leaded solder and/or liquid flux then trying the solder sucker and wick again.
The holes are still plugged. I have considered several options, anyone know which would be the best (most likely to succeed with lowest chance of damaging the board)?
1. Turn up the heat. I keep my Hakko solder station set around 350 - 400 C, I could turn it up to deliver more heat.
2. I have a heat gun I could use. This might deliver more heat to a larger part of the board thus melting the solder.
3. Try again with solder wick, perhaps turning up the heat and/or using more flux.
4. Try heating the joint and poking a thin piece of metal through, like a small safety pin.
5. Purchase a new tip for my soldering station. Something like the T18-BL (http://www.hakkousa.com/AHPDirect/images/T18-BL.jpg). With a thin sharp point it might be able to reach into the hole (although I'm skeptical it could deliver enough heat all on it's own).
6. I have some ChipQuik low temperature solder I could try melting in.
7. Heat the board up with a hot iron and try using the solder sucker from the opposite side. Difficult to do with only two hands.
8. Use an extremely small drill bit and my drill press to literally drill out the solder. I estimate a 1/64" drill bit would be necessary.
Any advice?
If I can't get the holes clear I have a backup plan. This particular board has both through-holes and surface mount pads for each capacitor. So I could switch to surface mount electrolytics. To me this is plan-B because A) I've already purchased the through-hole capacitors and B) I'm likely to have the same trouble melting solder to the big surface mount pads.
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