At 02:52 PM 12/20/06 -0500, Bingham, Wayne wrote:
>In the absence of Spoke-Be-Gone, which might be hard to find in your
>area, there are at least two "professional" methods to removing solder.
>One is a "solder sucker"
<snip>
>The other method is a product
>called Solder Wick, which is essentially braided copper wire that is
>used to "wick" or lift the molten solder off the desired parts.
These are things that a serious electronics tech or hobbyist might have around, but I've always resorted to cruder methods myself. For this application I'd use a propane torch to melt the solder and then smartly rap the rim on the edge of the bench or something. Be careful withthe flame because it doesn't take a lot to melt the solder. This may have to be repeated a couple of times before enough solder is gone to snip and peel back the wire. A puff of compressed air also works to blow away the solder. If you use a soldering iron instead of a torch, some flux on the joint and fresh solder on the iron helps.
John Betmanis
Woodstock, Ontario
Canada