How to Clean Up Solder Pads

Written By: Romin McGowan
  • Comments: 1
How to Clean Up Solder Pads

Difficulty

Difficult

Steps

5

Time Required

5 - 10 minutes

Introduction

In this guide, I am going to show you how to clean up solder pads on a logic board. I'll be working on a Chinese A13 Allwinner tablet. I'm cleaning the solder pads for the battery, so I can solder a new battery onto the logic board.

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    • The materials needed for this are a soldering iron, soldering paste and desoldering wire, also known as a wick.

    • The soldering paste helps the solder flow into the wick better. If you don't have soldering paste, you can get similar results with flux.

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    • There are many types of soldering paste—many of which are in a syringe-like tube, which makes it easy to get the paste in the exact spot it needs to be.

    • I personally use a plastic opening tool to scoop a little out and apply it gently on the spot I will be working on.

    • If you don't have soldering paste, apply some flux to the spot you're working on.

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    • The location I will be de-soldering is right above the SPK location in the photo.

    • If you're de-soldering battery connections, be very careful not to short the contacts with your soldering iron or the solder wick. If possible, cut the battery wires first, one at a time. This removes the chance of accidentally shorting the battery.

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    • Place the de-soldering wick on the solder joint and put the tip of the soldering iron on it so the wick can heat up and absorb the old solder.

    • Lift the wick and the soldering iron up from the logic board at the same time. Failure to do so can cause the leftover solder to harden and solder the wick to the logic board and you could easily pull a logic board pad off.

    • Please remember that logic board components are very fragile and excessive heat can destroy these components.

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    • What’s left over is clean points on the solder board, ready for fresh solder.

Conclusion

For more soldering guides and tips, check out this page.

Author

Romin McGowan

Member since: 30/04/13

3828 Reputation

One comment

Well Explained

Muhamamd Asif -