Removing Components with a cheap heat gun

[Skysailor]

I recently scavenged a 44 pin PLCC socket to put together a Surface Mount PIC programming adaptor. How do you desolder 44 pins? Well I remebered seeing somewhere where someone used a heat gun to remove surface mount items so I thought I'd give it a try. I worked great, I used a 1500 watt Heat Gun that I bought at harbor freight for $9.99 a while back. Within a minute of heating the pins on the back of the board, the socket just fell right out. I will definitely be using this to unsolder anything with multi-pins from now on, it is so much easier than any other method

[AndyOne]

I've used a heat-shrink gun to remove components in order to repair boards not just salvage components. The technique I use to make sure I don't heat all the components on the board is to cut a hole in a piece of circuit board material as a mask which I place over the component to be removed.

Andy.

[Eric_N57105]

I recently scavenged a 44 pin PLCC socket to put together a Surface Mount PIC programming adaptor. How do you desolder 44 pins? Well I remebered seeing somewhere where someone used a heat gun to remove surface mount items so I thought I'd give it a try. I worked great, I used a 1500 watt Heat Gun that I bought at harbor freight for $9.99 a while back. Within a minute of heating the pins on the back of the board, the socket just fell right out. I will definitely be using this to unsolder anything with multi-pins from now on, it is so much easier than any other method

Yep, works great. I've salvaged nearly entire boards by heating them with my heat gun, then wacking the edge of the board on the workbench. All the SMDs slide right off!

Eric