Removing heavy solder on power boards

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Ag and Au said:
I have had reasonable success using this method:
1) Depopulate the gold-plated PCBs with an electric chisel (it is not worth the time for ENIG plated boards).
2) Heat the "component side" (not the remaining stubby-lead side) outdoors with the propane heater.
3) Quickly hit the board with compressed air. The lead stubbs blow right out the rear of the board.
4) Clean up any remaining solder splash with solder wick and a solder iron.

Advantages:
A) Very little fumes
B) No chemicals
C) Very inexpensive

Hope this helps.
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the blue capacitors on the board are ceramics or film
 
FrugalRefiner said:
Anarxi, GLOVES!

Even if you don't care about your own health, you should set a better example for anyone who watches your videos..

Dave
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it's not me in the video.
in the Russian segment, everyone usually uses
"Francois Pellier desoldering solution”

and everyone says it works well
 
Thank you.
looks like "trash" but it would still be worth biting it with side cutters to find out what’s inside.
because the board you have there is old, there are tantalum capacitors, 3 resistors on the edge may also have “good” sliders
 
g_axelsson said:
Any gold plate with solder on is dissolved in the solder. If you dissolve the solder in acid or NaOH, you get the gold back as a fine mud. The question is if it's worth it. Often gold plating on solder surfaces are made with ENIG and is just a thin plating so the chemical costs could easily exceed the value of the gold.

Göran
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I was unaware that the gold would be dissolved in the solder?! How in the world does it make a good contact point if it’s just gonna dissolve 🤔

I’ll need to think about this over a beer to decide if it’s worth it or not. Clearly it uses a lot of chemicals for very little return and at the risk of devaluing the board.

This is just a hobby and I’m not trying to retire off of it. Just like gold panning. We love digging holes, playing in water, and the journey. And if we get good gold, even better. But my sluice box isn’t going to pay for itself quickly 😅
 
Martijn said:
If you read Goran's post, there is no reason to reveal ENIG plating under solder. Molten solder is a solvent for precious metals. The gold will be in the solder, not on the board. So if that's your goal, forget it. There will be no gold revealed, it will be in the solder.
another point is that any experienced scrapyard will recognize ENIG. looks great, but not much there.
Removing aluminum, brass, plastic does raise the boards value, but also lowers the weight.... if removing solder pads raises the value, I'm not sure.
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Yea that was new to me. Thank you for pointing it out. I’ve got some things to think about now!
 
Ag and Au said:
I have had reasonable success using this method:
1) Depopulate the gold-plated PCBs with an electric chisel (it is not worth the time for ENIG plated boards).
2) Heat the "component side" (not the remaining stubby-lead side) outdoors with the propane heater.
3) Quickly hit the board with compressed air. The lead stubbs blow right out the rear of the board.
4) Clean up any remaining solder splash with solder wick and a solder iron.

Advantages:
A) Very little fumes
B) No chemicals
C) Very inexpensive

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Hey thanks! My unlettered and ordinary brain appreciates the pictures too.
 
g_axelsson said:
Any gold plate with solder on is dissolved in the solder. If you dissolve the solder in acid or NaOH, you get the gold back as a fine mud. The question is if it's worth it. Often gold plating on solder surfaces are made with ENIG and is just a thin plating so the chemical costs could easily exceed the value of the gold.

Göran
Click to expand...
While a few others were astounded at this bit of information, it is something that was commonly taught in electronics in the 1970s, when we built our own radios from discrete components.

Time for more coffee.
 
Quite a few people have made millions by processing old Soviet circuit boards that had the parts stripped off, with gold legs, but the solder remained
 
In addition, according to the technologies of the 60-70s, gold was placed on a sublayer of silver.
Silver, over time (several years) passed out through the gold, the pins seemed silver.
I myself, several times, took out gold-plated pins after the process of removing silver in a mixture of sulfuric and nitric acids (melange)

material was purchased on the Internet...
 
galenrog said:
While a few others were astounded at this bit of information, it is something that was commonly taught in electronics in the 1970s, when we built our own radios from discrete components.

Time for more coffee.
Click to expand...
I learned electronics in the late eighties and nineties and never heard of it back then. A lot of practical basic information like this gets lost in time.
I like reading older threads because of that.
 

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