Introduction
If you're doing SMT, you're doing rework and anything that makes rework suck less is a big win. We use hot air for reworking some SMT parts but if you have leaded parts, especially big ones, hot air can take a really long time. If you want fast component removal/reworking we suggest getting a hot tweezer jig!
The MX500 soldering station is particularly good for hot tweezing, it has two ports on the front. One connects to the iron and the other we connect to a hot tweezer. You can switch out tips just like with the soldering wand. The system is called MX-PTZ and you can check out Metcal's page for all the various tips you can get for reworking different-sized parts
Removing an SOIC
Our favorite use for tweezers is to remove or rework SOIC and such. These are big chips, hard to heat up evenly and quickly but the large PTTC-x06 or PTTC-x07 cartridges make em easy!
For example, I want to remove this 14-SOIC chip:
Simply wait for the tweezers to heat up, then grab both sides of the SOIC
and voila! The chip comes off easily, cleanly and without affecting the rest of the circuit.
