De-soldering, then soldering 3.1

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atf104

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Paul-

I ordered 3.1 w/pins, and it looks like i'm going to be using with a breakout board. Soldering the center pins with the outer pins on looks difficult, so most likely I'll be removing then re-attaching. I'm just concerned about damaging the board. You think should be ok?
 
I work for an electronics company; I desoldered some pins from a Teensy 2 using our best solder sucking machine as gently as I could a while back and either I lost a pad or at least I broke one (or more, perhaps) of the tracks leading to them - I recovered use of the I/O pin(s) involved by using our thinnest link wire to connect back to the pin(s) on MCU.

Point being that the pads and traces in use in Teensy are on the 'skinny' side and extreme care is required if you want to remove a standard header pin from them. If I ever need to do it again I will look at the annulus of the pad, and the trace width connecting to it, and if it is still so thin I will very carefully pry the plastic all the way up and off the pins and then very gently remove each pin using tweezers as I heat each joint and then my gentlest practice with a solda-pullit to clear the holes.

Seriously worth avoiding.
 
Removing the pins without damage to the PCB is nearly impossible. It's certainly not something I'd do here... and we're pretty good at hand soldering.

If you do try anyway, maybe cutting away the plastic would help? Then you'd be able to heat just 1 pad and pull its pin with tweezers, and then use wick or suction to remove the solder from the empty hole.

Trying to heat 14 pads at once is a sure recipe for disaster.... or buying a replacement Teensy, which quite frankly might be the more economical approach if your time is valuable.
 
no need to cut. you can just slide the plastic off the pins. I do this all the time.
once the plastic is off the pins, you can pretty much hold the board with pins down, and melt the solder on each pin and the pin will practically just fall off the board.

instead of using surface mount header on the inner pads, search in one of the sticky post that use double pin header plastic and replace one row with right angled pins.
 
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doughboy said:
no need to cut. you can just slide the plastic off the pins. I do this all the time.
once the plastic is off the pins, you can pretty much hold the board with pins down, and melt the solder on each pin and the pin will practically just fall off the board.

instead of using surface mount header on the inner pads, search in one of the sticky post that use double pin header plastic and replace one row with right angled pins.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's a "sticky post", but here's the link.
 
doughboy said:
no need to cut. you can just slide the plastic off the pins. ...
Click to expand...
Trying to cut the plastic up without lifting it well away from PCB surface would rate as even riskier than trying to desolder the pins "properly" with a Hako 701 ESD Safe Repair System (the best solder sucking machine at my work-place) imho.
 
+1 on not cutting the headers in situ with a knife or cutters since wedging the blade in will provide a lot of torsion on the pins and has ended badly for me. Have had good success sliding the plastic off the pins and then hanging a clip on each pin to provide a low but steady force to pull it free as the solder melts to minimize track lifting potential. If the plastic won't shift because it's got a proper bond to the pins either a hot knife or a heat gun at ~100C may be the best way to soften them enough to slide them free. I just got cranky and ran the soldering iron through the plastic and pulled it off as a molten mess but cleaning up the tip afterwards was a reminder why that wasn't a good idea.
 
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