On 3 Dec 2009 at 13:56, geoffrey oltmans wrote:
I hadn't considered Chip Quik. I've never used
it myself, but I've
heard of it. That might be something good to have at the house. :)
I buy an ingot of low-temp Cerrobend 158 (the least expensive of the
Cerro alloys) and use a coarse rasp to create a powder with it. Pack
it in around the component pins, apply heat with a PAR-38
incandescent, and the solder combines with the alloy and the chip
floats off the PCB. Clean up with an old toothbrush. Discard the
cerro-solder mixture as you would any hazardous metal material.
(e.g. Sn-Pb solder).
Cerrobend 158 (Wood's metal) does contain some cadmium, so take
appropriate precautions (I'm less concerned about metallic Cadmium
than I am about Cadmium salts or organic compounds). There are other
(and lower-melting) alloys, but they're much more expensive.
I don't know what the alloy in Chip Quik is.
--Chuck