22 May
2003
22 May
'03
10:47 a.m.
IME, the wire wool tends to go black (oxidise?) pretty
quickly, I don't have
a clue what metal it's made out of, though.
Could you stuff part of a stainless steel dish scrubber in there instead?
Might not stainless steel hold up better than the steel wool?
At 05:05 PM 5/22/03 +0100, you wrote:
In message
<20030522135338.86817.qmail(a)web10305.mail.yahoo.com>
Ethan Dicks <erd_6502(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
Was it here that I was reading about turning a
RadioShack Desoldering
Iron into an SMT hot air tool?
I have no idea, but there was a thread on the
PICList along those lines. The
original idea was somewhere on www.usbmicro.com ISTR.
The basic gist is that you remove the
rubber bulb, plug in an aquarium pump on a long-enough air hose, and
pack some (stainless) steel wool inside the de-soldering nozzle. The
pump provides continuous air over the steel wool which facilitates
heat transfer to get the air temp up to something useful.
Theoretically it should
work... See below for my - ahem - "test results"...
I have done some initial digging and have come up
with the following:
RS De-soldering Tool - $10 new
Weller De-soldering Attachment - in junk box
Aquarium Pump - $7 - $70 new
So... I can use one of my Wellers as the heat source, or I can drop $10
for a dedicated (non-temp-controlled) unit.
I spent $10 on a dedicated unit, then
bought a cheapo 30W soldering iron and
bolted the desoldering attachment onto it.
What I'm hung up on is that
I have no idea what capacity pump to buy. The $70 pump is somewhat large,
but is adjustable. The $7 pump is too small to enclose a golf ball.
There are numerous models in-between, including several with dual taps.
I tried
using a 20-something PSI (allegedly) air compressor. Made by Aerosol
Products (Colchester), 87 Eccleston Sq., London, S.W.1. $DEITY knows if they
still exist - there's a phone number (?) on there - "Victoria 1676". The
model number on it is "SCI" (may be "SC1", "5C1" or
"5CI"), serial number
1/6290. Painted red with a metal toggle switch on one side (power) and a
7mm-ish pipe on one side for the output.
I guess the air pressure is too high for the steel wool to heat the air up
enough...
So... has anyone here had any experience building
such things? If I
didn't read about it here, I'm baffled where else I would have run
across the info.
PICList? Google Search?
BTW, if you do find a pump that works, post the specs of it somewhere!
IME, the wire wool tends to go black (oxidise?) pretty quickly, I don't have
a clue what metal it's made out of, though.
Later.
--
Phil.
philpem(a)dsl.pipex.com
http://www.philpem.dsl.pipex.com/