David Wilson wrote:
I just de-soldered another RAM chip. This time I made sure the holes were all solder free and levered one side of the chip up with a fine screwdriver. It released without damaging the board. The biggest problem was that the IC pins were bent to hold the chip in place before they were flow soldered. I had to straighten them with a regular iron before the the de-soldering iron would make a good seal prior to sucking.
It is quite common for enough solder to remain at the contacts between leads and plated-through holes for the IC to remain stuck in the board. A technique I have found useful is to grab each lead from the bottom with needlenose pliers and move it back and forth to break the very thin solder bridges. When they are all free, the chip is free. -michael NadaPong: Network game demo for Apple II computers! Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/ "The wastebasket is our most important design tool--and it's seriously underused."