Desoldering a chopper transistor

A few points 1. If the device is dead, or cheap, just cut it off above the board, the board is rare/delicate the device commodity and replaceable, then each leg can be got out above board, even the solder sucking process can do this for you. least board heating 2. after sucking all three, I try to jiggle each lead to check its free/break any small amount of solder left, hole has to be reasonable clear 3. with a large iron add solder to get a blob on all three, pull device out and then suck holes after 4. similar to above but rapid sliding of iron over the pins to get all melted, then pull device 5. back in the old days there were iron tips around for multi pin melting, I never found them to be too good braid never worked that well for me Dave Caroline