deskthority

My soldering iron is hot enough to melt solder but is not hot enough to desolder the leds from my poker. Any tips?

fossala wrote:Any tips?

Sure, use the biggest tip.

But seriously, your iron is probably just not hot enough to melt whatever lead-free abomination they used.

One of my old irons cant cut it anymore with the new ROHS (think thats the right order for the letters) stuff.
Great with my old lead laden stuff I have loads of.

Be careful with the time if you have to leave it on there for a while, in case you transfer too much heat to other things Led's should be ok, you can always use something to draw away the heat from around the area if need be.

You could try getting a flux pen and adding some flux to the bit you want to desolder and combine that with some desolder braid.

Try adding some new solder on top of the old. Works for me every time.

Half-Saint wrote:Try adding some new solder on top of the old. Works for me every time.

+1

Temp is an issue, depending on the type of solder used. The lead free stuff I found easily needs another 50-100 degrees.
The tip shape can have an effect on transferring the heat, try the largest mass and shape that will fit.
The tip should have all oxidation cleaned off, it tinning alone won't do it, use a tin/paste.
The tip should be freshly tinned and you should see flux still burning off as you are using it.
Adding new flux, solder, or solder with flux should greatly help conduct the heat quickly.

A lot of factors that can have an adverse effect on desoldering the lead free stuff. I've had my challenges and done some damage. Lessons learned.

For some reason, I keep reading the title as "Sodomy Iron..."

LOL ... OUCH!