I wanted to post a follow up regarding my experiences with the Aoyue 474A+ desoldering station. My last post I mentioned that I purchased this to make my life easier when working on boards. Previously I had been using a Soldapullt and desoldering braid as my methods of desoldering. It just wasn't cutting it; both work great for someone getting into the hobby but if you are serious about working on your own boards you need a dedicated unit made for desoldering. I ordered this station a few weeks ago and I have had some time to put it through its paces.
Overall I am very happy with the 474A+. Last night I put it through a torture test; removing the 40 pin interconnect on a System 6 CPU and driver board! Everyone dreads removing this connector it seems. So with this in mind I decided to tackle the CPU board first. I have the dial on the unit set to roughly 65% of the dial's movement. I went from pin to pin and had no issues desolderingevery hole including the outer holes. With a slight push they came right out. So far so good, next up the driver board.
The 474A+ worked excellent on every pin minus the outside pins which I expected. Pins 1, 2, 39 and 40 were not being desoldered without a fight! With the dial set to 65% the 474A+ just didn't have the juice to melt the solder. Since these pins are on the ground plane of the board I knew they would be trouble since they just suck up the heat and keep on trucking. No big deal I still have another 35% travel left I thought, so I cranked it up to 75%... still not doing it. I cranked it up all the way and believe it or not I was still having issues! Here is where I can find one fault with this station; with the heat cranked up past 90% you can feel a lot of heat coming from the plastic sections of the gun itself. Its hot enough that it is not comfortable to use and really doesn't seem safe. Here is where a bit of technique comes into play.
I took my Weller WESD51 and cranked it up to 750 degrees. I flowed some new solder onto those stubborn pins, putting much more than would be there under normal circumstances just to make sure that I could sap a lot of heat into the joints. Then I turned the 474A+ back down to 65% and started desoldering. This did the trick! The extra, new solder helped get the join hot enough that it desoldered immediately. I sucked up the molten solder and the connector dropped right out! YAY! So this goes to show that even with a desoldering station you still have to have a bit of know how.
Another interesting thing to note, after removing that much solder about halfway through the gun was making a kind of wheezing sound. The reason is further back into the tip of the gun some solder was stuck and the air being sucked into the nozzle was making that weird sound. Every now and then you need to take the tip cleaning tool and push any latent solder into the collection tube. This is a minor inconvenience but worth noting. I thought I remembered from another post someone mentioning that they liked the older, short tips better and now I understand why. This tool is not for the lazy. You need to clean the tip after each use and make sure to check the collection tube for old solder and clean it out. I haven't had this unit for that long but as with anything preventive maintenance is never a bad thing.
So in summary I am very happy with my Aoyue 474A+. It has done an excellent job for me. I have no problems recommending this to anyone that wants a cheap desoldering station as part of their tool set.
Overall I am very happy with the 474A+. Last night I put it through a torture test; removing the 40 pin interconnect on a System 6 CPU and driver board! Everyone dreads removing this connector it seems. So with this in mind I decided to tackle the CPU board first. I have the dial on the unit set to roughly 65% of the dial's movement. I went from pin to pin and had no issues desolderingevery hole including the outer holes. With a slight push they came right out. So far so good, next up the driver board.
The 474A+ worked excellent on every pin minus the outside pins which I expected. Pins 1, 2, 39 and 40 were not being desoldered without a fight! With the dial set to 65% the 474A+ just didn't have the juice to melt the solder. Since these pins are on the ground plane of the board I knew they would be trouble since they just suck up the heat and keep on trucking. No big deal I still have another 35% travel left I thought, so I cranked it up to 75%... still not doing it. I cranked it up all the way and believe it or not I was still having issues! Here is where I can find one fault with this station; with the heat cranked up past 90% you can feel a lot of heat coming from the plastic sections of the gun itself. Its hot enough that it is not comfortable to use and really doesn't seem safe. Here is where a bit of technique comes into play.
I took my Weller WESD51 and cranked it up to 750 degrees. I flowed some new solder onto those stubborn pins, putting much more than would be there under normal circumstances just to make sure that I could sap a lot of heat into the joints. Then I turned the 474A+ back down to 65% and started desoldering. This did the trick! The extra, new solder helped get the join hot enough that it desoldered immediately. I sucked up the molten solder and the connector dropped right out! YAY! So this goes to show that even with a desoldering station you still have to have a bit of know how.
Another interesting thing to note, after removing that much solder about halfway through the gun was making a kind of wheezing sound. The reason is further back into the tip of the gun some solder was stuck and the air being sucked into the nozzle was making that weird sound. Every now and then you need to take the tip cleaning tool and push any latent solder into the collection tube. This is a minor inconvenience but worth noting. I thought I remembered from another post someone mentioning that they liked the older, short tips better and now I understand why. This tool is not for the lazy. You need to clean the tip after each use and make sure to check the collection tube for old solder and clean it out. I haven't had this unit for that long but as with anything preventive maintenance is never a bad thing.
So in summary I am very happy with my Aoyue 474A+. It has done an excellent job for me. I have no problems recommending this to anyone that wants a cheap desoldering station as part of their tool set.
