I accidentally soldered a switch on crooked. I got the switch off the board but i’m having trouble cleaning out the holes so i can put a new switch in.

Can this switch footprint be saved after being clogged with solder and melted a little, or should i try to get the other switches off and start over on a new board?

And what’s the best way to desolder these switches if i have to remove the rest?

  • zqwzzle@lemmy.caEnglish
    4·
    10 days ago

    If you don’t have a solder sucker or wick like the others have mentioned you might be able to knock it out. Just use a soldering iron and heat up one at a time and when it’s melted knock the board on a surface so that the surface tension on the solder pulls it out of the through hole.

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
    2·
    10 days ago

    Certainly. This is a very common need with working on PCBs. You have two choices:

    Solder wick
    Manual vacuum desoldering tool

    If you end up doing this a lot there are also very nice (and expensive) powered vacuum desoldering stations.

    Regardless of which you choose, make sure to practice on a board you don’t care about. It takes some time to learn how much heat to apply, angles, etc. You don’t want to destroy your good board learning.