Re: [LUG] Bah! Disks! Bah!

[Terry Hill <telbonic@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

You would be suprised just what you can solder by hand, certainly we
have done 80-100 pin surface mount packages by hand, then checked with
a microscope. It takes a lot of time and a very very steady hand but
its not impossible.

You can also use a hot air gun, like hair drier but much hotter, if
you lash some heat direction baffels to protect chips you do not want
to mess up near by, you can even transplant chips. I've done this on
*very* old graphics cards to move memory chips from one 2MB card to
make a 4MB card ;-p, judging the heat level is tricky, too much and
you cook chips, to little and you make no/bad joints.

A hot air gun like a paint remover or something more tailored for the job?

I've been experimenting with removing surface mount gear recently, just to get a feel for it as part of wider electronics experimentation.  Just trying to save cash so if this is possible on the cheap, and I can rescue useful silicon this way I'm all ears..

I did find one way (just practicing on old rubbish mind) - using an old dentists tool, a straight, thin a very long needle with a handle, pushing it in the gap between the legs and the chip body, and with a careful sidewards motion you can "unzip" them.  For practise I soldered little copper legs on the stubs to make a "dead bug", then bent them down to make a dip-like chip.

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