My old needle tin trick beats every fancy solder sucker I own

For cleaning old flux off a board I used to grab the desoldering pump every time, but a plain sewing needle taped to a pencil eraser does the same job in half the time on 60/40 joints. Anyone else still keep a tin of needles on the bench, or am I just stuck in my ways?

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valwest19d ago

Wait, a sewing needle taped to a pencil eraser? That is wild. I have been using the same crusty Radio Shack pump for like 15 years and it clogs every third joint, so this hurts my brain a little. Do you mean you just poke the needle through the hole while the joint is hot and the solder wicks off, or is it for scraping the burnt flux crust after? Because the scraping part I get, but the wicking part would blow my mind. Also how do you keep from torching your fingers when the needle heats up? Tell me you wear gloves or something.

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