Burnt a pad. Shoppping for a serious desoldering iron. Any experiences?

I did this today to an msb link dac trying to put a dip socket under the op amps.



It got me thinking how much it would cost to have a bad day like this on an expensive piece of equipment.

So I'm on a quest for a real desoldering iron. Dig that continual heat and suck action. It's rather sexy.

Yes, the board conducts fine as is, although I haven't plugged it in, and won't without a little more work. The capacitors were even harder to replace. Could it be the eutectic solder I just opened today? kester sn63pb37 "44" core. It's thinner than what I've used before. Nah! I'm sure it's just me.

And, yes. I really need to start using flux instead of letting it rot and leak out of the container year after year while I have another pad meltdown.

A desoldering iron isn't the only tool on this quest. Better magnification and maybe a panavise with the king fu gr... err... circuit board holder.

If anyone has experience with some really good desoldering irons or stations, please share. Or just share your... well... misery loves company.

sniff!... sniff! What's that burning?

Was looking at the Hakko FM2024-21, but it requires a separate air compressor. I'm already married to a fp-102--it drives me nuts but I love it--and these two work together. Would marry another hakko any day. The 808 looks great, nice vacuum and temps, although I do prefer a pencil type.

Was thinking more like the Xytronic 999SD-A. Just placed a bid for a used one on ebay. Got outbid.

Repair kit? You mean like eyelets, a drill bit in a hand chuck, thin strips of copper, and crazy glue? The board's actually okay. I checked with a meter and visually with a loupe. There's a coating on the board that might be interfering with soldering, and might be getting caught in the flux. There's the same fibrous glob in places I didn't solder. It started showing up when I used alcohol and a toothbrush to clean the resin--the whole board turned white in fibroush patters. The alcohol gets it off eventually. sigh! Seems I've been here before, but not like this.

Your Pace looks like a good system. Haven't found much on the internet about Pace. Wish I knew what to ask, but I don't know enough about these things yet. Could you give your experience using it? Like how do you use it, how loud is it, how much you can desolder before changing the filter, whatever? Any other functions you could talk about would be cool too.

Anyone else that's used a good tool or hacked one, please comment. There's plenty of threads where people talk about braid and bulbs, but not a lot there about more solid solutions with good, temperature stable irons. For example, one thing I read is that they're not much use on vintage equipment because they used so much solder you have to change the filter every 6 joints.

Decided on a Hakko FM204. Like the Hakko 808, it has built-in vacuum, which is a pretty hard to find feature. Unlike the 808, it uses tips with a built-in heater core (which are expensive at $50-60us). This also upgrades me to varying temperatures from 400-840F--my FP102 is stuck at 4 fixed temperatures 650-800F. Will give a mini review once I get a chance to use it.

I looked at other brands, particularly Metcal (I really want one of those), but couldn't find anything with built-in vacuum and the other features I was looking for at the quality and price competitive with Hakko. The Pace ST 75 has vacuum at a competitive price, but I've read a few things online (always a precarious thing to base an opinion on, but) about Pace's reliability that make me hesitate. The Hakko could be better. It could have two ports to solder and desolder at the same time, but I have a second iron.

The DIY route seems like the way to go for this. Maybe all you need to do is hack an existing decent unit to use the desolder tips and plug in a vacuum.

To give you an idea of the crazy tip prices, I got 6 and spent over $250.
N3-13 desoldering nozzle $50
N3-L10 long desoldering nozzle: $60
T15-1001 SOIC tunnel: $42
T15-1401 10mm spatula (suitable size for 8-pin DIP): $83
T15-ILS long conical: $16
T15-DL52 chisel: $16

Circuitmedic has some really cool stuff, although it's pricey for a hobbyist.

Is it safe?

Brilliant! My desk has a plastic laminate surface.

Just make sure to get the right grade silicon. Some is safe to 480F, others are safe to 900F, and some is the cheap stuff coated with the good stuff. I'm definitely getting one.