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Tried the hot air rework station vs my soldering iron for removing a stubborn IC
Ngl I was always team soldering iron for everything but last week I had a 48-pin QFN chip on a dead motherboard that just would not budge. Broke out my 858D hot air station from Amazon at 350C and had that thing off in about 30 seconds without lifting any pads. Has anyone else switched their go-to method for certain jobs or do you stick with one tool?
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kim_johnson511mo ago
You ever get that feeling where you swear by your method for years and then boom, one job changes everything? I was the exact same way. Iron only, hot air seemed fancy and extra. Then I had this stubborn QFN on a graphics card. Spent an hour fighting it with flux and an iron, nothing. Got a cheap hot air station on sale, 30 seconds, off clean as a whistle. No lifted pads, no burns. Honestly humbled me. Now I always grab hot air for anything bigger than a SOIC. Still use the iron for caps and resistors though. Different tools for different jobs, I guess.
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annaw731mo ago
Oh, I completely get that. I was the same way, thought hot air was overkill until I had a stubborn chip that just wouldn't cooperate with the iron, and now it's my first grab for bigger jobs.
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lunaf671mo ago
Three years of doing board repair with nothing but a Weller iron and I never had an issue. A decent iron with the right tip and some practice gets you through anything. That QFN you mentioned? I've done plenty of those with just a drag soldering method and some good quality solder wire. Takes a steady hand but it works. Hot air just introduces too many variables. You overheat the board, you blow off nearby caps, or you cook the chip itself if you're not careful. I'd rather spend the extra 10 minutes with my iron than risk lifting a pad on a multi-layer board.
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