Heat gun trick saved my butt on a stubborn motherboard repair

Had this old Dell laptop come in 2 weeks ago where someone tried to replace the USB port and used way too much solder. It was bridging like 4 pins and I couldnt get my iron to clean it up without lifting pads. On a whim I hit it with the heat gun at 350 for about 20 seconds and tapped the board. The excess solder just balled up and fell off. Clean as a whistle after that. Anyone else use heat guns to fix solder bridges instead of wick or a sucker?

3 comments

3 Comments

johnson.jason25d ago

That "balled up and fell off" part is exactly what sold me on this method. Keep a pair of tweezers handy to flick away the stray balls before they cool and stick somewhere else.

the_fiona1mo ago

Thing is, nobody talks about how this trick can also help with those tiny little SMD caps that get stuck to your iron tip. I was fighting a resistor that kept jumping away from its pad and a quick puff of hot air settled it right into place like magic. So it works both ways for adding and removing stuff, which is neat. Just be careful with the heat around plastic connectors and ribbon cables though, they melt fast. I learned that one the hard way on a laptop hinge.

adamgreen1mo ago

Twenty years in electronics and I swear I didn't know this until last year. Was working on a PS4 power supply, had this tiny ceramic cap stuck to my iron like glue. Puff of hot air from my rework station and it dropped right onto the pad. Felt stupid for not trying it sooner. The plastic thing is real though. Fried a ribbon cable connector on an old Thinkpad motherboard once. That was a bad day.