Use of Hot air gun
Contents
Background information
Using a heat gun is a key skill for data recovery as it allows for items to be solder/reballed/desoldered with relative easy compared to using a traditional soldering iron for the same task
What tools you will need
Items are not listed in any particular order
Required
- Hot air gun
- Heat resistance mat
- set of tweezers
Optional but useful
- Digital microscope
Uses of this skill
- 1.BGA reballing
- 2. Chip desoldering
- 3.resoldering of BGA chips
- Reference 1: YouTube video about techniques
- Reference 2: forum post regarding temperatures
Step-by-step guide with images
Step one, enabling the fume extractor to ensure any hazardous fumes are removed (if you are able to smell the fumes, then your extractor is not working correctly).
Step two, Set the temperature of your hot air gun to 250C/482F for lead-free 200C/352F for leaded solder and around 40 litres per minute 4 on a dial (these are not exact numbers you may have to adjust according to your needs and tools).
Step three, place the item you're de/soldering in the position you want so that you can de/solder it.
Step four, Clean up the area with desoldering wick or lint free cotton buds and 99% isopropyl alcohol.(this just ensures the area is clean and less chance of issues)
Flow chart of order of operations
Insert a flow chart of steps and actions for each task (create using diagram)
Troubleshooting/tips and tricks
Fixes to any common issues that were encountered or could be easily encountered
Q: It keeps blowing away or moving when I bring up the hot air gun!
A: lower your air flow to around 30 litres a minute(3 on a dial) this will stop the component "blowing away". The trick is to "sneak up" on the component by bring the gun in from the side at a 45-degree angle instead of directly on top of the component.
Q: The solder surrounding the thing I want to desolder takes forever to melt
A: The board is likely absorbing the heat from the soldering iron, heating up the board as a whole is recommended to overcome the board's heat dissipation capacity.
Heat board to around 100 degrees/37.77c - 150 degrees/65.55c through the use of a board preheater.
(Not exact numbers just personal preference, experience as it heats the board enough without causing heat damage to other areas or melting other solder.)
Related Topics
Topics such as desoldering to chip off or firmware dumping for disk PCB repairs
Further reading
External references in wiki references can just be cited through the keyword link