A rite of passage for a young electronics enthusiast used to be collecting an array of surplus boards from whatever could be found, and using them as sources of parts to desolder. It was possible with ...

[Lee] has a Hakko FR301 desoldering gun and a Duratool knockoff. He freely admits that the Hakko is probably better, but he wonders if it’s good enough to justify being four times as expensive. He ...

When I did my article on prototyping, I learned that one way to de-solder chips and such is to melt some bismuth solder into the existing solder joints. Since bismuth alloyed with tin has a melting ...