I do not do SMD yet. Maybe never. But on occasion I need to remove components and it is hard/impossible to operate and use the old fashioned vacuum desoldering tool. You'd need an extra pair of hands to try and hold everything together and even then ...
I'm not sure if this statement ^ is primarily referencing SMD or PTH, I presume you meant the latter and will start on that premise. I'm not sure if it's technique, lack of a good work holding vise, solder sucker, or some combination that's giving you the biggest hassle.
Might have some tips with more specifics (easier on the budget vs. desolder station too).
FWIW, I found I use my hot air station
far more frequently than my solder sucker.
Besides, a hot air station and a good pair of tweezers/pliers can even be used for PTH component removal (rather nice on SIP or DIP). You'll still need to clean things up with braid and/or a solder sucker of course, but you'd have to go through a substantial amount of braid before it would add up to the cost of a desolder station.
Even the number of uses you can find for hot air might actually surprise you. Heat shrink probably being the most obvious, but other things like adhesive removal (including mastic & labels), paint removal, softening up screws that have too much thread locker on them, massaging plastic enclosures to fit a project if say one capacitor is 1 - 2mm too tall (
), ...
So unless you're doing a
lot of PTH desoldering, I don't see it as the best use of lab funds.
If you do need a desolder station but don't have a small fortune to spend, perhaps you might consider
Hakko FR-300 (would expect better performance than say a Zhongdi desolder station), if you'd be OK with the all-in-one gun style format.
Otherwise check out reviews of the Zhongdi ZD985 (
review & teardown thread).
Hope this helps.
* Thinking in terms of ability to develop sufficient vacuum pressure, is easier to clean (solder doesn't solidify in the tube before reaching the catch chamber), and can easily get spares & consumables.Dave even covered it in Video #542