So i'm apparently a solder noob and need advice.

[ComputerRepairTech]

I don't really understand whats going on here but I don't have much desoldering experience. I bought a motherboard a few years ago on ebay for my aunt cheap asus (yeah i know run right lol) and I put it in and everything was fine for like 2-3 years. A few days ago she comes to me with DC Jack issues and I open up everything up and go to replace the jack when I take a good look at it and realize this DC jack was obviously redone before (im sure it must have been like that from ebay and i didnt notice) because its got a little too much solder to me normal and its solders on both sides. I look up youtube videos on how to desolder and I already have copper wick that came with the dc jack but just in case i ordered more but for the life of me I can't seem to get the solder up. I put the copper on the solder and then the soldering gun on the copper wick but the solder won't leave with the copper, at best I can solder the copper into the board lol.

Any ideas on what I could try? you think they used some sort of weird type of solder or something? How can I be so bad at this T_T

Edit: I did try to add more solder to one joint then reheat the solder but the old solder did not ball up with the new solder.

 

[jmitservices]

I would invest in a soldering station with a hot air gun. Makes desoldering so EASY! You'll be able to heat all of the DC jack pins and the socket will just drop out of the motherboard.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

I would invest in a soldering station with a hot air gun. Makes desoldering so EASY! You'll be able to heat all of the DC jack pins and the socket will just drop out of the motherboard.

I can probably do that, can you recommend a cost effective product? I hardly do any desoldering but never know when that might change one day.

 

[NJW]

Any ideas on what I could try?

Flux will help enormously.

I use a soldering iron and a solder sucker, but it's a personal preference thing. Given what you have, I'd put flux on the copper braid and take it from there.

Temperature is something else to consider. A higher temperature and working quickly is better than trying to protect the board by using a lower temperature iron/gun. (This is another problem with copper braid – it's a huge thermal sink.)

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

Flux will help enormously.

I use a soldering iron and a solder sucker, but it's a personal preference thing. Given what you have, I'd put flux on the copper braid and take it from there.

Temperature is something else to consider. A higher temperature and working quickly is better than trying to protect the board by using a lower temperature iron/gun. (This is another problem with copper braid – it's a huge thermal sink.)

Which copper braid/wick and flux do you recommend?

 

[Moltuae]

Temperature is something else to consider. A higher temperature and working quickly is better than trying to protect the board by using a lower temperature iron/gun. (This is another problem with copper braid – it's a huge thermal sink.)

This. And additionally, iron wattage is very important. You need an iron that can deliver enough heat quickly, especially when the heat is being dissipated by large components, heatsinks or large areas of copper on a multi-layer board. If the iron doesn't have enough umph (especially if it doesn't have temperature regulation), the moment you bring it in contact with the joint the iron rapidly begins to cool.

 

[Krynn72]

Which copper braid/wick and flux do you recommend?

The braid should be fine, its literally just copper wire weaved into a braid, so its nothing special. The only difference between brands really is the tightness of the weave, and the type of flux they put on it. In your case, it sounds like they didn't put any flux at all.

This Chipquik flux is what I usually use.

Put a bunch of the flux on the joints themselves (you can't really have "too much" flux, but you can have too little) and then reflow the joints with your new solder. It sounds like your iron may be a bit on the weak side, so you may need to hold it there for a bit, but you want to see the whole joint get shiny with new solder and look like its gotten molten through the board to the other side.

Then add more flux, put down your wick, add flux to the wick itself, and desolder. Once your wick turns silver looking, slide it down to an unused bit and continue.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

alright i'll give that a shot, the extra copper braid i bought did say it had flux on it but there were some reviewers that said it wasnt any good and they had to add to it.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

Is there a con to doing it the hot air station way that was previously mentioned? that does sound convenient. Can anyone recommend a hot air station like they mentioned?

 

[Larry Sabo]

I have this unit (badged W.E.P. and without the iron) and have been very pleased with it. Hot air works great but can take a long time to get the board heat soaked around/under the jack. Just take your time and don't try to force it; it should drop right off the board when it's ready.

 

[Krynn72]

Is there a con to doing it the hot air station way that was previously mentioned? that does sound convenient. Can anyone recommend a hot air station like they mentioned?

The benefit to hot air is that you can more easily remove the thermal mass of the jack, which then allows you to remove the solder in the through-holes easier. You still need to wick away the old solder though. I think a lot of people use the hot air method because they think they can just keep the old solder molten while jamming the new jack through it, thus never having to remove the old solder or even add new solder. This is a poor practice though, because the joints are going to be brittle and the customer may eventually crack the joints through wear and tear.

I've personally fixed a few such "repairs" where the jack had been clearly replaced before, and was still fine, but the joints cracked. They use lead-free solder when manufacturing the board, and lead-free solder is brittle and crappy to begin with, without oxidization and remelting.

 

[NviGate Systems]

If that is lead free you may have to crank the heat up to 750, ASUS uses some wacky hippy lead free solder. I had to do one once, it was hard. Use lots of flux and mix it with leaded solder, it will lower your heat requirements.

 

[gadgetfixup]

The danger of hot air is blowing away small SMD devices around the jack. It takes a lot more heat to remove a jack than a nearby small smd. If you're going to use hot air (I don't recommend), make sure you hit all the joints with leaded solder first as it melts about 40 C lower than lead free solder. This gives you a chance of removing the jack before melting all the SMDs in the neighborhood.

The easiest method is just using chipquik solder with good flux (chipquik flux is all I use). Chipquik drops the melting point from about 210 down to around 60C and it stays liquid for about 30 seconds, plenty of time to take the jack off. Just sober flux all over the pins, follow up flooding the pins with chipquik and the jack with just fall off. No warping the motherboard, burning or cracking board traces and no blowing SMDs off the area.

The other nice thing about chipquik is cleaning out the holes. Get yourself one of the large solder suckers, heat up the hole, put the nose of the sucker right on the iron and push the button. Chipquik comes out slick as a whistle and much easier than lead or lead free solder.

 

[Larry Sabo]

Some good advice above. To keep SMD components from being blown away, I tape them down with Kapton tape. I've also found this desoldering iron handy for clearing solder-filled through-holes and mainly use it for swollen cap replacement.

 

[thecomputerguy]

Just don't breathe the fumes unless you like passing out or smoking cigs

 

[coffee]

On problem boards with SMD very close to the DC Jack, I use some tin foil to cover the area except for the dc jack. I totally recommend a hot air station and have been using one for years. The problem with most solder irons is that when they use the "Hippy" solder you can damage the board and traces. With the hot air station you have the right tool to get it done quickly.

Keep in mind that not only is there solder on the dc jack pins, There will probably be a good amount on the metal case of the dc jack or between it and the board. Its kinda difficult to get the heat to those places with just a solder gun. Thats where a hot air station really shines.

So, I would definitely get a solder station and then I would practice on some old POS boards. Below is a pic of mine:

 

[NviGate Systems]

One thing to note is I have one of those dual hot air and solder stations. I now wish I had purchased two separate units as the cords for each unit tend to get in the way of each other.

On my bench my station is on the right and items I work on are to the left, and often the cables overlap and "catch". Plus the hot air on these cheap stations tend to get noisy and vibrate after a while. The previous station I replaced was so noisy you could not have a conversation with it on. This current one I have is getting louder.

 

[Larry Sabo]

Plus the hot air on these cheap stations tend to get noisy and vibrate after a while.

That's one of the things I like about the design that has the fan motor incorporated into the handle/wand. Not totally silent, but much quieter than the design that has the air pump built into the unit. I have one similar to Coffee's and it is loud.

 

[brandonkick]

I use a solder sucker with a variable controlled iron. Basically a cheap hakko 936 iron clone.

The size of your tip makes a big difference as well, bigger chisel style tips hold heat a lot better.
As long as it's not too big, the bigger the better. And as said, you don't want to scorch it but often
lower heat that takes a long time to heat the joint is often worse for it.

Hot air... eh I guess that's fine. I don't have one, and some people on here who do a lot more
solder work than I do swear by em.... just make sure you insulate the areas around the jack
well. You don't want to heat up anything other than the part you want to solder / desolder.

 

[mr m]

The key to a successful soldering job is a clean, tinned tip. For PC repair a 30 Watt pencil type iron is perfect. I use conical tips for electronic work. The tips are made out of copper with a thin iron coating for efficient heat transfer. When new, the first thing I do is tin the tip. I let the iron heat up and then coat it with solder until it's nice and shiny. Then, wipe off the excess with a brass pad or damp sponge. The brass pad doesn't cool the tip as much but a damp sponge is fine for occasional use. You can also buy a paste made for cleaning the contaminants off the tip.

Next step up is a Weller a soldering station. Now you have a safe way to keep the hot iron handy and you can control the temperature. For a lot of production work a hot air or traditional rework station are the way to go. Some have built in vacuums to hold small surface mount components or to exhaust the toxic fumes from the flux. Some use ceramic tips for more efficient heating lead free solder. For occasional use a regular old soldering iron is fine.

For electronics, I use an alloy of 60% tin and 40% lead solder or Kester makes a lead free solder. The lead free solder takes higher temps to melt and is harder to work with but is safer for you and the environment. Either way buy rosin-core solder. It has enough flux built in for precision small component work. The flux helps the solder flow by reducing oxides and removing other heat robbing contaminants This way you don't have the extra step of having to coat the surface with flux. If you are trying to solder large pieces like a metal heat sink you must manually coat the adjoining surfaces in flux.