Slodering/Desoldering pins of parts on a ground plane

Community PCB Design
1

How can I de-solder a pan/pin on a SMT/TH part when it is part of a ground plane? I’ve tried to use just my iron cranked up to a high temp, but it just doesn’t work.

I’m thinking I need to pre-heat the ground plane somehow (hot air pre-heater) so my iron can reflow the solder on the pad/pin better. I found these [preheaters, but they are expensive. Anyone got a home brew solution?](PCB Pre-heaters. Affordable Preheat for SMT, SMD, BGA. Lead-Free Solder. Compact Rework Preheat)

2

Ideally, you would build the board with thermals to avoid this problem.

The other option is to reflow the entire board using a skillet or toaster oven.

3

this probably isn’t what you want to hear but I have no problem using a hot-air smd rework station. works a trick.

4

Sometimes it helps to use a larger tip in your soldering iron - better and more contact improves heat transfer.

5

I think you just need a higher wattage iron.

6

My Metcal system doesn’t have any problems doing that sort of thing.

Leon

7

You all saying you can do this with hot air are either completely overheating your PCBs, have thermals, or are working on small PCBs. Removing a through hole component connected to a large ground plane requires a lot of heat. A pre-heater is the proper method if you’re using hot air.

If you want to do it with an iron - chipquik works remarkably well.

8

I never said I could do TH. Notice the part about “smd rework”. To be clear you are right about TH parts and hot air.

9

What does a thermal on a ground plane look like and how does it help in this situation? I can’t seem to get google to return any useful info for me on this.

Thanks.

10

It’s just a pad with spokes (four, usually) connecting it to the power plane. Most PCB packages can create them, as an option.

Leon

11

With a 45watt iron I haven’t had that much problem with thru-holes on ground planes up to TO-220 packages as long my solder braid is clean and I have a decent dab of flux.

Unfortunately the control board on my iron died last week, so I order an Aoyue 968. Hopefully it will be here soon.

12

leon_heller:
My Metcal system doesn’t have any problems doing that sort of thing.

Leon

I'd second that - Metcal is the King of irons and laughs in the face of groundplanes.