Ditched my soldering iron for a hot air station on a 1988 Apple //e power supply

I was desoldering a bulging cap on a logic board and lifted the trace with my iron running at 350C. Switched to a $30 hot air station and pulled the cap clean in 10 seconds without touching the board. Has anyone else made the same swap and seen their success rate jump way up?

2 comments

2 Comments

parker_bell10d ago

My old iron was basically a trace-lifting machine before I made that swap too.

the_anthony10d ago

@parker_bell hits it right on the head. A bad iron can wreck a whole board before you even know what happened. I learned that lesson the hard way too.