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Hot Air Pencil

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Noggin

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Ive been finding myself needing a hot air pencil a few times here recently but I've only had access to a a full size hot air gun. Can anyone suggest a cost effective hot air pencil preferably with changeable tips for different IC packages?
 
I broke down and splurged for a good one. Howard Elecectronics (HEII) sells their demo units used at trade shows for a discount. They were quite helpful regarding solder paste and flux. Sparkfun and MPJA sell units at about half the price of the discounted one I purchased, but a review I read about the less expensive units said they barely make enough heat to work. The unit I have has heat to spare and comes up to temperature quite fast.

A note to anyone who wants to DIY one. Think about buying a replacement heating unit intended for a profession unit. They are $30 or $40 but it would be a very good start.
 
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I bought a couple of used "rework stations", one made by Pace and the other by OK Industries. These are the kind of station that include 5 or 6 different tools into one "system". The ones I got were missing bits and not entirely sound, but the hot air pencils work just fine.

After looking on Ebay, perhaps something like a Hakko 852 (or one of its competitors) would be good. There are some for sale on ebay for $100 to $200. I've used Hakko products before and they are good.
 
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