Chapter 3. Desoldering
If everything went right the first time, you’d never learn anything. This section shows you how to recover from little soldering mistakes, and also includes a gallery of various solder joints so you can compare your work.
Desoldering is the “undo” command for soldering. With this technique, you can remove solder from a joint, allowing you to free the component so you can reorient it as needed. There are two tools for this: the desoldering wick (sometimes called desoldering braid) and the solder sucker.
The Desoldering Wick
Pull a small length of wick out of its spool (Figure 3-1). You don’t need much, but if you don’t use it all, you can wind the wick back into its spool.
Figure 3-1. Pulling out some wick
Preparing the Wick
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