John De Villiers wrote:
> I have just junked two IBM laser printers and they have tons of surface
> mount parts on. Ones that I might be able to use.

Yes, junk printers, motherboards, hard drives and floppy drives have tons of
surface mount components.

Recently, when I needed a 4.7K resistor urgently, it was convenient for me
to desolder a resistor from one junk hard disk board instead of going out to
purchase it. But the big problem is the difficulty involved in removing the
surface mount components like resistors and capacitors. Removing ICs is a
lot more difficult without proper tools.

I have a desoldering pump. But I found the following method easier to remove
a surface mount resistor: Use the soldering iron and a thin stainless steel
blade (solder doesn't stick to the SS blade) to separate one end of the
resistor from the board and do the same thing to the other end.

Considering the cost of the resistor, it's of course pointless to waste time
and energy to salvage it from a junk board. But when you need it urgently,
this may be a better option.

Now, my questions:
 - Are there other (better) methods of removing surface mount parts from a
board when you only have the soldering iron and the desoldering pump?
 - What are the tools used by professionals for removal of surface mount
parts? How expensive are they?

Thanks.
Regards,

Bala
Bombay, India

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic:
[PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads