Removing old glued chunky components

[wiredmonkey]

Hi all,

Just wondering whats the best way to remove thick leaded components from through plate boards? I've been recently removing old capacitors off some high voltage boards and they have bent legs on the solder side, glue and foam (all for mechanical stability) but theyre a real pain to remove. I have another 100 or so to remove and need tips! Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers!

[gmphadte]

Remove all the solder using desoldering pump and desoldet wick. Check that both the leads are loose, then just push the capacitor. The glue will mostly break loose. The writtings will remain on the glue if it was sandwitched. Just write back the values onto the caps.

Gajanan Phadte

[Mooly]

I always use a special little gadget, it's a double ended stainless steel tube, hollow of course, different diameters at each end, with a hand grip in the middle.
Just melt the solder with a good iron and slip this down the leg, it was brilliant on TV LOPTX's etc that were soldered in "rivets", use it all the time. 1000 times better than braid, the whole LOPTX comes out in seconds cleanly.
Never seen them on sale though, I was given mine years ago. But of course any hollow stainless will work.

[h_a]

Use a hair dryer or heat gun to warm the glue, the glue usually becomes soft and the part is then easily removable.

Have fun, Hannes

[wiredmonkey]

Great ideas, thanks! Just wondering if the desoldering tools are any good as well?? Being for work I could justify a few hundred to get something that makes life that little bit easier

[Enzo]

If you do a lot of work, a desoldering station is amazing. I have been using a Pace desoldering station now for 20 some years, and I would hate to lose it. I know a lot of guys are happy with their Hakko units.

Desoldering irons have a hollow tip. You put the tip over the end of the lead as it looks out from the hole in the pc board. When the solder melts, hit the vacuum button and it sucks the solder from around the lead. Often this leaves the lead loose in the hole, but not always. For heavy work, sometimes the desolder iron doesn;t have enough power to keep the melt the entire length of a heavy wire lead in a large pc trace.

In cases like that, ask yourself if you need to keep the old parts. if they are to be discarded, then sometimes it is easier to snip off the wire lead at the component body, then melt the solder and pull the wire lead remnant from the hold, the THEN suck the solder out. Clearing solder from a lead-less hole is a lot easier than sucking around the lead while it is in place.

Glue? If it is hot-melt glue, a squirt of freeze spray makes it brittle, and you can shatter it. Otherwise glues and contact cements may be loosened with heat.

[jackinnj]

I use my Weller 1200 and an RS solder sucker.

[Mooly]

This is the "gadget" I mentioned.
Removes a LOPTX in under a minute even if in through "rivets"

[CBS240]

Ah yes, I had one of those back when I used to fix arcade games.....always having to do something to those old TV chassis.

It's a handy dandy.