> I also wonder about using a low flow temperature controlled heat >gun for soldering. High flow blows the parts off the board. >Nontemperature controlled melts parts. Anyone have any experience with >this? > Finally, how about a temperature controlled heat gun as a mini >environmental chamber? >Harold I have used a regular old hardware store heat gun to remove SOIC ICs. For example, I did a number of designs with the Zilog Z8. These OTP SOIC parts needed changing quite a bit as the firmware was being written. Here at work we have hot-air rework stations, but they are in another part of the building from engineering. To save time, I began removing these SOICs with a heat gun. I would then clean the pads and replace the part with a fine tipped soldering iron. The heat gun did not destroy the Zilog Z8 chips. Numerous times I used this technique to remove an SOIC from one board and then install it on another. I have not tried it on a PIC yet. Two things to remember. 1. These heat guns are hotter than the rework stations, so be quick about the task and keep the gun moving at all times. If you direct the blast at one area too long it will scorch the PCB. 2. The air blast is very hard and broad. Use tin foil and or molding clay to shield meltable components like plastic connectors and electrolytic caps. Good Luck. ----- Steve