Removing soldered components

At my last job I had the luck to have access to a real/live solder sucker component remover. I found it on the top shelf of the electronics lab and fired it up. The rig was a small vacuum pump with a long hose attached to it, allowing the heated air to cool somewhat, with a glass tip. The glass tip was filled with some kind of mesh filter where the solder that was removed could cling. These little solder filters were replaceable. This glass tip was attached to a soldering iron. The vacuum pump was controlled by a foot switch. It took some trial and error to use the system. It takes some eye-hand coordination to operate this system. Don't try after 1-2 beers. I also need longer arms because my vision is extending. Works well for small number of components, not very production oriented. The whole system is probably still in the lab and hasn't been used since I left. "Solder sucker component remover" (TM) Mike "I'm waiting for all of my current memory to disappear and them I can live in the past."