Desoldering Iron pump

[enochsmoken]

Has anyone tried one of these Xytronic, D1-3 Vacuum Pump Desoldering Iron, or something similar? They look very handy if they worked ok.
Brad

http://shop.vetcosurplus.com/catalog/pr ... ts_id=6841

[haklesup]

The iron in the photo may not be all you need. there needs to be a vacuum pump somwhere as well as a filter to prevent solder from getting into the pump. That particular desoldering iron aside, I can offer some advice.

First off, these things tend to be a lot hotter than the iron you would use to do the soldering with initially. That plus the large tip and the time it takes to remove the solder make them prone to damaging the boards you work on. I've noticed a tendancy to overheat the joint by either pressing too hard or dwelling too long. Some boards can take it but many will get damage to the soldermask and possibly traces.

They work well for large solder joints where there is lots to slurp up but I find the vacuum to be usually insufficinet. I haven't used a real good quality desoldering pump but my experience with low and mid range models has left me preferring to use manual sucker pumps and copper braid for cleanup. For SMT rework, I find a hot air soldering system to be best for component removal, you can reheat the joint without touching it then pluck the part off with tweezers. For compoinent replacement, we just use a fine tip iron and a low mag microscope.

One trick to these is if you turn the vacuum pump up too high, the air flow will cool the tip making it useless, if the air flow is too low, the tip will be hot but the suction will be insufficient. its a trick to balance it out for your current work situation and there is constant maintenance emptying the solder filter (often just a glass tube with shredded metal and cotton balls to catch the solder) Flux really makes a mess of these too. In a manual pump, there is only the brief but powerful suction when you hit the trigger. Unless you are getting sore wrists by manually resetting the pump too often (take more breaks) I would just keep using a manual pump, they really work better for intermittant use.

In summary, this is not a good tool for infrequent use by hobbiests. It is best used in a factory by a skilled technician doing limited types of repairs of mainly thru hole components at 50 mil pitch or larger. You also need a minimum work flow for these to be attractive.

[Edd]

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Having dealings with previous Amerikanski units, and upon close inspection, via a 500x magnifier, methinks that unit IS having a conventional single shot vacuum sucker built into its rear end.





One can see the white release button and the rear "rest" is where the extended sucker shaft and capping knob WOULD normally be visible, if the unit were not already cocked.
The round milled portion at the front is for releasing the sucker tube for a timely full scale clean out of solder tailings
(Now does anyone else save all of theirs., as well as my soaked solder wick) (On the wicks reuse, I hold it with mini SS surgical siezers and have a PCB stock or piece of metal needing a tinning, and I then simultaneously move BOTH the soldering iron tip and the internediately placed wick, all around the flux coated specimen to be tinned.)
I have used these combo Irons and Suckers, and they do work.
I STILL like my original and conventional Sold-A- Pullit . . . . serial # 009 . . . . . circa 1968-70.
One helpful technique which I have enacted upon my unit(s) is to take that teflon tube end and file the slight / small two sides of an equilateral triangle on one side.
That way, if you can visualize the change, normally if you press the teflon tiplet into a flat surface it would meet flush and minimal suck action could even be initiated.
In the mod, that triangular slot will let the vacuum pull in thru it.
Now here is the full situation . . . . . in a normal de soldering operation unit you are up against heating the solder blob and component lead to the molten state and either speedily getting the iron away and the teflon tiplet on top of the mass and sucking.
If you do not do it that way there is a second procedural option of keeping the suckers teflon tube aside to the joint and then rolling over onto it.
Now, my manner of using the triangular cut mod is to have that slot positioned just at, and within the side of the molten solder mass, with the iron STILL producing its heat and you then key the sucker to activate and pull in a charge of molten solder in thru that triangle.
In that manner, no solder cool down time lost in remanipulating the iron or the sucker.


73's de Edd
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[haklesup]

Even if you do not modify the teflon tip of a typical sucker in Edd's description, they tend to get that way after some use as the tip melts and wears away due to the user attempting to keep the iron and sucker tip on the same spot.

Assuming Edd is right and this is an iron, one shot sucker built into one it could be efficient but I still caution the high wattage and larger tip compared to an assembly iron.

[Dean Huster]

If you get into all the training literature that is put out by Pace, you'll find that it's not only temperature, but the size of tip, amount of time spent on the joint and amount of bulk heat available that does the job. A lower-temp iron with a large heat capacity and the correct size tip will heat a joint and allow you to complete a solder joint (or desolder a joint) within the 3 - 4 seconds or so that is recommended. The actual wattage of the iron is of no consequence if it's temperature-controlled -- the wattage is more of an indicator of how quickly the iron will recover its temperature or maintain its temperature. The Pace desoldering systems are really pricey, making single-stroke desoldering pumps like the Edysn and this model we're discussing look attractive.

But even a big Pace system is no match for larger multi-layer boards with internal ground planes. Do desolder grounded pins or leads of thru-hole components almost always requires a second iron on the opposite side, a PCB vise and a lot of dexterity on the part of the technician. Often, it's recommended that one clips off all the leads of a component to be desoldered -- OK for repair, but not so hot if what you're doing is harvesting components, in which case, you're not worried at all about PCB damage!

Even a motorized Pace system has its drawbacks. It takes time for that vacuum pump to get up to speed. [Sidebar: A Pace vacuum system develops about 21 inches of vacuum, maximum.] For a time, I was working on a system (never got it put together, though) where a vacuum pump pulls the air from a 1.5 gallon "storage" tank -- a used Freon tank -- and a line goes directly to an electrically-operated valve as close to the iron as you can get, operated by a foot switch. This should provide a better "shock" pressure change to help jerk the molten solder into the collection tube. I prefer the Pace irons and their glass collection tubes over anything I've seen and was going to use them on the iron end with my vacuum system on the vacuum end.