Plugged Holes

[foozertone]

I was trying to remove a transistor and managed to break the legs right to the quick. What I was wondering is do any of you have any tricks to reccommend in clearing these holes. I'v gone at them with a pump and braid but haven't had any success yet. I guess I'll Keep plugging away;)

Jeffrey

[theundeadelvis]

I'd try to heat it up and push it out with another components lead.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Some people say, heat & push out wiht a toothpick.
i heat 7 push out wiht a stainless steel dental pick.
THE TRICK: put a blob of solder on top of the whole shebang. That allows enough heat to get there to melt the solder in the hole. just using an iron, you might not be able to get enough heat to it.

Have I been there? Try removing fifty or so microprocessors soldered in with the wrong code.. that's about a thousand legs to take out of  plated-through holes.

[trendyironicname]

I'm having a time too.  All the places that have info about part removal are about saving the board as opposed to the component.  I'm on the opposite end.  I need to figure out a good way of getting the comps off safely.  Screw the board.  I was given an old industrial robot from a friend of mine that teaches electronics at the community college I went to back in the day.  I seriously took that huge thing out by myself.  Piece by piece over the course of a couple of days.  It has all kinds of goodies on each  board but it takes forever to just get a few.  Optocouplers, triacs, relays.  There's probably more than a hundred pieces I'd like to have out so I don't have huge circuit boards lying around and I can finally get to the light controller I've been working on.  I've got braid and a solder pump.  Main thing I'm lacking is skill and knowledge.

[BubbaKahuna]

In that case, I'd cut the board up with a wheel in a dremel.
Smaller boards are much easier to do fine work on from my experience.
Cutting it up would also let you make your cuts right next to components that look like they could give you trouble working on.
In fact, you could cut each piece out close to the component, then whittle away the board right up to the leads themselves.
Dremels rock!

Trashed big boards or trashed little boards - who cares if you get the goodies off?