Electronic Parts Cannibalizing

by jcoronel

7.5K335

Intro: Electronic Parts Cannibalizing

Hi everybody!!

Nowadays everything is done to use and dispose. It's a pity to waste all the wonders enclosed into most of our broken / obsolete gadgets.
Some pieces are mechanical parts, easy to dismantle, but electronics chips are difficult and tedious to desolder.

This is a cheap little trick to desolder electronic components, very useful for our instructables.

We need a stripper (Hot Air Gun) and a piece of cardboard to cover the floor.

STEP 1: Locking the Target

First of all, we have to choose what to desolder. In this case, we will desolder a bipolar stepper motor controller, in order to make a motor controller for a robotic related project.

This PCB was part of an old inkjet printer, and of course, it's full of dust so we have to clean it.

Also, put the cardboard on the floor, to avoid damages.

STEP 2: First Shot

Once cleaned, we'll heat the zone gently. The stripper I use has two different intensities. For this step I only use the first one (about 250ºC). Remember to heat both sides, even for SMD chips.
This step will take about 20 seconds per side.

STEP 3: Melt It

Once heated for 40 seconds, heat it for 20 seconds more per side, but at a higher energy (in my case 500ºC). After this, shake the PCB against the cardboard to detach the chip. Probably, you will need to heat the PCB again, before the chip detaches, but don't heat it too much.

To melt tin correctly, it's necessary to heat it several times, so be patient or you could break the chip.

STEP 4: Results

Here we can see our capture, ready to use.

Have a nice "cannibalizing"!

5 Comments

Gelfling6 10 years ago

Drawback with heating the board from the component side, is you're now exposing the component to massive heat, and usually more than the soldering that mounted it.. This can result in literally melting the component, or heat-shocking it. (melting things internally.) Plastic connectors will melt. though, if you did the heat-up from the the pin side, you'll end-up with the solder splatter getting under the pins of chips, causing shorts unless you can scrape out the solder later. I've had the same happen with boards I've used a gasoline (Coleman) stove to melt the solder, but the boards had been outside (exposed to rain, elements), do a similar action, where the water boiling out caused the solder to splatter up & through.)

iPodGuy 13 years ago

It's so simple! Why didn't I think about it?

Nice work.

jcoronel 13 years ago

Thank you very much iPodGuy. I like simple things and thanks to instructables, we can share them.

scraptopower 13 years ago

I do this all the time. I clamp the board in a metal working vice and heat the back (solder side). Just pull all of the parts off with small tweezers. You don't have to get the board very hot for this, I use the lowest heat setting.