# PCB depopulation



## kjavanb123 (Apr 1, 2017)

Hi all,

Just came accross the following video, by the accent and gas tank in the video I am guessing he is the Deano from South under

https://youtu.be/wzWB66dLBok

Enjoy
Kj


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## anachronism (Apr 1, 2017)

The guy on the video is South African....


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## snoman701 (Apr 1, 2017)

I've wondered where his accent was from...I've enjoyed his videos. 

They show enough detail, but not so much that it's awful to watch. 

I wonder how bad that smells. I'm not seeing huge clouds of smoke, but it doesn't take much to get the boards to start fuming. In some of his videos his back yard is CLEARLY not in a subdivision.


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## kjavanb123 (Apr 1, 2017)

He says no fumes, maybe it is because the boards he is depopulating do not need that much heat to desolder.

If you get to comment section there is another link that use a chemical called Sn-SND or something that dissolve the solders in boards and components fall off. Here is the link

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn5LjwnmYFg


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## Simon007 (Oct 17, 2017)

anachronism said:


> The guy on the video is South African....


He's from New Zealand

Sent from my EVA-L09 using Tapatalk


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## cosmetal (Oct 18, 2017)

Simon007 said:


> anachronism said:
> 
> 
> > The guy on the video is South African....
> ...



Definitely from NZ. That info. is from another of his videos (which are good).

3 1/2 mins. to "completely depopulate" 1/2 kg of ram boards - not bad. I speak from experience as I just finished 600+ gms using a heat gun and banging them against the side of a Corning dish. Took a lot longer than 3/12 mins. But, it was much simpler (therefore, IMHO, more elegant)  than a using a automated system (unless you have many, many kgs to process).

James


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## rickzeien (Dec 12, 2017)

One the PCBs are depopulated what sorting is necessary or desired. Perhaps someone could point me to a thread that discusses this topic. Thanks in advance

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## Elektrikis (Mar 7, 2018)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OnyJaHPVZw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlgZrxSmOAk


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## Mcnew32 (Apr 1, 2018)

Good build but I just finished 200lbs of very high yield ceramic populated boards in two days off and in using a converted propane oven set to 400 degrees. Took a little longer but man really worked well. I didn’t want to depopulate the whole board just wanted the ceramics because I’m selling the boards to a recycler. 200lbs of boards with ceramics on them. I did use a hammer chisel in about 25% of them because they only one ceramic on them. I used the oven for the ones with multiple ceramics on them. As long as you tend the oven there is little off gassing and I used a fume respirator just in case and did it in open air. Used channel locks to grab ceramics off.


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## nickton (Apr 7, 2018)

wow. Wish I could find boards like that. Geez. Never seen them before.


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## Evan2468WDWA (Apr 7, 2018)

I've used a heat gun to completely depopulate boards before. The one I used was very similar to this one.
https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/H-491/Heat-Guns/

That, and a pair of needle nose pliers, was very effective for the task. The only issue was the fumes. To combat that I worked out side with a snorkel with a long tube attached to it which I used as a remote breathing device. This was effective enough, but pretty uncomfortable to wear. I'm thinking of making a better remote breathing device using a sleep apnea mask, tubing, one way air valves, a plastic bag for storage and some PC fans + power supply to move the air around.


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