I will warn you about the heat gun method. Becareful…heating just part of the board can cause it to bow or warp. This is not ususally a problem…but can be for some projects.
If by heat gun you mean the cheapo $30 ones, I totally agree. They seem to have 2 settings - nuke and thermo-nuke. However, a hot air station with regulated and controllable heat and flow works really well. The only thing tricky for me was learning to do a pre-heat pass. Once I figured that out, it was really easy and fast. I’m happy with my hot air station.
That is exactly what I speaking of…I actually have a warming plate I put my board on to do rework. The warming plate heats the whole board to about 125…and I use my rework station to heat the component area enough to replace the component.
If you only heat the one area…the board most of the time will “draw” and warp.
It can be done with the cheapo guns…but I’m not brave enough to try it. I just ordered me a rework station…will pay for itself real fast.(no board to replace)
I got an Aoyue(rework station)…and it’s been great…not a bad price either. Not the fanciest on the market…but it’s accurate…and never lets me down.