Oh those DC Jacks

[atlanticjim]

So I have two lappies in the shop for DC Jack replacement. One is a Toshiba and I will do the replacement myself since it is on a pigtail (more about this when I am done with job).
The other is a Dell, and as I have in the past, I wrapped it up and sent it out to Chicago to be professionally replaced. The guy does fast and extremely clean work for $60 if I send him a bare Mobo.

Last month I toyed around with a DC Jack on an old laptop in the cabinet but I didn't have the skill to remove a 10 pin Dell Jack. .. all I got was a headache and a bad odor in the shop.
Today I am thinking that perhaps I was using the wrong technique with a hand held soldering iron and a cheap plastic de-soldering pump.

Somewhere I heard about cutting the legs off the jack first and then removing the individual connections but I would be worried about damaging a trace if I used a Dremel or something like that. Do any of you cut them off first?

Question: I saw this Aoyue-852A++ Hot Air Soldering Station with vacuum pick-up and think that for about $130 plus my cheapo soldering iron I would be in business and have a fast turn around.

Welcoming comments.

[MobileTechie]

I had the same problems with soldering irons and went with an Aoyue and it makes the job so much easier and better quality. I didn't bother with the vacuum lift as it's just for picking up desoldered chips which you can do with a hand vacuum tool or tweezers, if you do it at all.

You do have to practice the technique and work out which nozzle is best and the timing etc. Initially I was a bit disappointed but then I got a load of old broken mobos and other circuit boards and desoldered just about everything on them. By the end I could take off an IDE socket with relative ease - and that is a lot of pins. I use a flux pen to lightly flux the joints and a desoldering pump to get the bulk of the solder off. After that they just drop out leaving shiny clean pads.

You can mess up with them though and scorch the board or desolder other components accidentally. So you want to shield the rest of the board with some foil.

[coreyspeed]

i find that solder wick also helps alot, when you are just starting i suggest cutting the conectors pins on the top so that all that is left are small pieces of metal in the holes then yo can use either a desolder pump or solder wick to remove the solder and rest of the stuff left over

[arrow_runner]

Originally Posted by atlanticjim

Somewhere I heard about cutting the legs off the jack first and then removing the individual connections but I would be worried about damaging a trace if I used a Dremel or something like that. Do any of you cut them off first?

A couple months ago, I actually started cutting the metal bracket that goes over most DC Jacks in half. Then each half is only held on by two solder joints, so it makes it a lot easier by doing this and then heating up one joint while pulling the half away from the joint, then heating up the other joint and pulling the half bracket back. I usually use the memory cover from the laptop as a 'dust shield' to prevent specs of plastic/metal from flinging onto the motherboard. (I use a dremel).

I'm really glad I started that and haven't had a problem with it yet. Just keep a steady hand with the dremel though. You don't wanna slip and hit something! That's another reason I use the memory cover as dust shield. If I should ever slip, I'll probably just graze the cover rather than hitting something important.

[coreyspeed]

i wouldn't use a dremal tool rather a pair of esd cutters these do the job without potential damage to other compontents.

[atlanticjim]

Originally Posted by coreyspeed

i wouldn't use a dremal tool rather a pair of esd cutters these do the job without potential damage to other compontents.

Thanks for the suggestions. ..


(can you make that photo a little bit bigger for me?)

[trapped]

I just got a Hakko desoldering gun. It was $159 at Fry's and well worth the money. I got a 9 pin dell jack off in less than 5 minutes yesterday with super clean holes.