Little Help with desoldering

[QuickSkope]

Ok, so im doing some stuff with a soldering Iron I got for Xmas, and Im having a blast. Soldering is a Blast. Which Iron should I use on my Xbox? 15W or 45W? Anyway, Im running into a problem when testing on some PC mobos. When I try and solder some wires, they stick and it works fine, but when trying to desolder wires, im totally lost. Anyone wanna share some tips on De-soldering?

[chainfire95]

Buy some desoldering wick or a solder sucker.

Desoldering wick

Solder sucker

[kibble]

Allow the joint to heat up enough before trying to remove it, a few seconds. The solder takes a bit to completely melt so that could be why you're having a hard time. Also, make sure you keep the tip tinned and clean.

[Steamdnt]

Nice Avatar,

[QuickSkope]

Thanks for the Avatar comment. It's a nice little photoshop Jig. Anyway, desoldering Wick and a 45W Soldering Iron (only for desoldering) is gonna work. I am also getting a 15 or 30 W Iron (which one is better for soldering Mobos, ive heard 15W is good.)

Also, which guage wires will work if I wanted to extend wires (EG, the Xbox 360 DVD power drive, or Wifi modual.)

Thanks for the Help

P.S I was thinking of starting with a 360 Laptop, but don't wanna fry anything, so I think il make a little portable, I have a Sega Dreamcast and a PS2 available. But I could get any kind of system from somewhere. I think a gamecube portable looks cool, also the PS2, when I took it apart, it was a little more complex than the Xbox.

Anyway, Which system would be good for a fist time.

[chainfire95]

You can use IDE cable.

[QuickSkope]

Jesus, my IDE cables for my Pc are so small, look.

h[img]ttp://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab228/QuickSkope/Photo3.jpg[/img]

Those are so thin. I though you were supposed to use like 12 or 20 Guage wires.

[chainfire95]

I can't see your picture, but IDE cable works fine. you can also use old ribbon cable.

[joeyjoe9876]

some of the IDE cable i have is 30 AWG some of it is 24. the 30 is really thin

[ffrr]

when using the 30 watt iron be careful not to hold it in any one place for too long or you could damage the board resin (making a board useless or a nightmare to repair), or you can accidentally flow solder over contacts (which can be a pain to clean up).

I always use a 15 watt iron for modding and repair work on consoles as they have more intricate board work, I also use a flux pen to help the solder stick, and on occasion a wick and sucker pen to tidy up. For removing standard components I use my 30 watt iron. Just make sure it's heated up nicely, get you sucker pen ready, hold the tip* on the solder to be removed for 2-6 seconds (depending on amount and which solder has been used it my take longer to reach it's melting point). once the solder is visibly liquefied suck it up. If you do it right, or are very lucky, you'll suck up all the solder from the joint and leave a nice shinny component leg that will pull free with ease from the board (good luck)... but normally you're left with a few blotches of solder, which is where the wick comes into play. Also some people prefer to just wick from the start and not use a sucker pen. Each to their own, I just prefer to save my wick as much as possible. I also have a decent magnifying glass handy to check small work, and I recommend getting some 'helping hands', which are very aptly named and normally very cheap!

*a note on iron tips, for consoles I use a .5mm tip in my 15 watt iron and on my 30 watt iron I use either a point tip or flat angled tip. Again each to their own, but tip shapes do help depending on what job is required.