Desoldering (was Re: Computers for children (soldering)

At 06:50 PM 1/15/99 +0000, Tony wrote: So would I, however a while back (5 years?) someone on sci.electronics reccomended the desoldering iron that Radio Shack (Tandy in your woods I believe) sold. This $8.99 wonder was basically a soldering iron with a bulb on top and a pipe to the tip. This thing works _great_! I the soldapult's would always fire too late or I'd take to long to get it on to the joint and that would be a problem. Not the RS tool. I push the bulb, stick the lead in the suction hole, when the solder melts and the tool settles down to the PCB you quickly let go your thumb and poof! quite clean hole with the lead free standing in the middle of it. I've pulled 14 pin ICs using this thing and kept both the board and chip intact! --Chuck