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Picked a hot air station over a soldering iron for a delicate job and it almost backfired
I had to replace a tiny surface mount capacitor on a guitar amp board last week. My usual soldering iron was giving me trouble with bridging, so I switched to my cheap hot air station at 300 degrees. It worked, but I ended up melting a nearby plastic connector because I got too close. Has anyone else found a better way to protect sensitive parts when using hot air for small SMD work?
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samjohnson3d ago
I usually stick a piece of kapton tape over any plastic connectors or heat sensitive parts before I even turn the hot air station on. Another trick that's saved me is using a small metal shield, like a thin piece of aluminum cut from a soda can, to block the airflow from hitting things I don't want melted. For really delicate jobs, I'll set the temp to 275 degrees and keep the nozzle moving constantly so I don't focus heat in one spot too long.
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lisaf383d ago
Gotta push back a little on that 275 degrees suggestion, @samjohnson. Most solder melts around 300 to 350, so setting it that low might struggle to reflow anything properly unless you're just drying flux or desoldering with a ton of preheat. Idk, maybe try 315 or so and just keep the motion up like you said, it's a better balance for getting joints to actually flow.
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