Finally broke down and bought a $200 hot air rework station after using a heat gun for 3 years

Pulled a blown capacitor off a GPU in under 2 minutes flat without scorching the board. Has anyone else seen a big jump in success rate after upgrading their gear?

2 comments

2 Comments

daniel_rivera22d ago

Did you ever try using a heat gun on a multilayer board before getting the station? I wrecked a perfectly good GTX 1060 trying to do a capacitor swap with a heat gun, melted the plastic connector right next to it and took out a resistor too lol. My jump in success rate came mainly from having adjustable airflow control so I wasn't blasting everything around the target. That pinpoint nozzle makes a huge difference too compared to just aiming a wide cone of hot air at the board. Makes me wonder how many boards I could have saved if I'd just spent the money earlier.

jamieburns22d ago

Dude yes, same exact boat. Tried swapping a blown mosfet on an old laptop motherboard with a heat gun and I swear I melted the whole area around it. Ended up with solder balls everywhere and lifted a couple traces. That was the day I learned that hot air stations aren't just for fancy people, they're for people who don't want to turn their project into a pile of melted junk. The adjustable airflow is the real game changer, I can actually aim the heat where I need it now without melting stuff three inches away. Still cringe thinking about that poor GTX 1060 though, that one hurts.