Removing large buss bars

[barber02]

I need to move three large buss bars out of my way to replace some predrivers on the motherboard. Are there any tips, tricks, watch outs, or work arounds that anyone wants to share with me before I dive in? I’ll be working on this tomorrow afternoon. The predrivers are located in the circled area in the picture.

Thanks,
David

 

[Perry Babin]

If you have second soldering iron or a hot-air rework station, use that to heat from one side and use your soldering iron to heat your soldering iron to heat from the bottom.

Use the largest tip you have for your soldering iron on the hottest temperature. Sometimes you can find a large weller 80 watt iron with a big huge tip (like the SP80N used for sheet metal or stained glass) for cheap. They take a long time to heat up (10 minutes) but work well for this.

You can use a small butane torch (not a propane torch) to heat from the top but you should shield other components from the heat, using aluminum foil. Using the foil in multiple layers will greatly increase it's insulating properties. If it's wrinkled up some, that will keep the layers from touching in large areas and also helps. Bear in mind that a torch can burn through foil if heated directly.

Of course, this will be easier is you have help.

You can use a pair of needle-nosed vise-grips to help pull the bars out. Don't pull. Just let gravity pull.

If you use something to pull down on the bar, don't let your ungloved hands (leather gloves) be under the molten solder.

 

[barber02]

Thanks for the response Perry. I’ll do my best.

David

 

[twilliar]

To add another option you can use quick-chip on the solder joints of the bars. I use my Hakko 808 to pick up as much of the original solder as I can beforehand. Make sure you remove all of the residual quick-chip when you are done.
Quick-chip makes easy work on areas that normally would require a lot of heat or multiple pins, connections.