Some time ago, I purchased a hot air rework station and soldering iron from X-tronic, the model 4040-XTS. The rework station was discussed in this thread:
http://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/solder-station.147819/
Since that time I have found the re-work station as an invaluable addition to my lab, and has made easy work of smt rework. In addition to making me a Jedi rework master, I have found additional value of this wonderful tool. I am speaking of component salvage. Prior to this hot air blowing machine, I would write off smt parts as simply un-salvageable, but that has changed.
If your like me, then you don't throw away broken gadgets, you first open them up to see what goodies a re inside. Over the years I have managed to accumulate quite a few scrap boards, most with SMT parts so up until my acquisition of a hot air rework tool, I never attempted to salvage any of the parts.
Well, on old laptops there is a treasure trove of components just waiting to be had, and with a hot air rework station, obtaining these little silicon jewels is easy, in fact I would say much easier than the dip counterparts.
Just take a look at these lil beauties
Those 8 pin parts are N-channel Mosfets. The Dpaks are Mosfets as well, and lookie at those 22 mΩ resistors. Yeah baby...
Prepare to spend some time on google looking up all the part numbers, and get some of the SMD code guides. Maybe I will look up some of the links later, but they are out there.
I know what your thinking, "But Mike, won't the heat ruin the parts"? Well, I would not use these parts for production, but home use they are still okay. To prove it, I took one of the 2.5V reference IC's I found and put it on a test board and look at the meter. 2.48 VDC, still works.
And here it is shown still working:
Some more nice parts:
And Here are some of the parts I salvaged just recently.
Do these look familiar, one of the 22m ohm resistors looks like I might got to much heat on it, but still a good haul
So, as you can see, don't throw away those SMD boards, salvage them first
http://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/solder-station.147819/
Since that time I have found the re-work station as an invaluable addition to my lab, and has made easy work of smt rework. In addition to making me a Jedi rework master, I have found additional value of this wonderful tool. I am speaking of component salvage. Prior to this hot air blowing machine, I would write off smt parts as simply un-salvageable, but that has changed.
If your like me, then you don't throw away broken gadgets, you first open them up to see what goodies a re inside. Over the years I have managed to accumulate quite a few scrap boards, most with SMT parts so up until my acquisition of a hot air rework tool, I never attempted to salvage any of the parts.
Well, on old laptops there is a treasure trove of components just waiting to be had, and with a hot air rework station, obtaining these little silicon jewels is easy, in fact I would say much easier than the dip counterparts.
Just take a look at these lil beauties
Those 8 pin parts are N-channel Mosfets. The Dpaks are Mosfets as well, and lookie at those 22 mΩ resistors. Yeah baby...
Prepare to spend some time on google looking up all the part numbers, and get some of the SMD code guides. Maybe I will look up some of the links later, but they are out there.
I know what your thinking, "But Mike, won't the heat ruin the parts"? Well, I would not use these parts for production, but home use they are still okay. To prove it, I took one of the 2.5V reference IC's I found and put it on a test board and look at the meter. 2.48 VDC, still works.
And here it is shown still working:
Some more nice parts:
And Here are some of the parts I salvaged just recently.
Do these look familiar, one of the 22m ohm resistors looks like I might got to much heat on it, but still a good haul
So, as you can see, don't throw away those SMD boards, salvage them first