Homebrew PCBs

Along these lines, I just got a new toy.  It's a knock off of a Hakko 
850 hot air station.  This thing works a treat.  I preheat the board 
for a bit to limit the thermal shot and hold the wand over a part for 
a couple of seconds and pry it up with a dental pic (have done 100 
pin fqfps.  Works amazingly well.  I had been using chip quik alloys 
before. This is a lot cleaner.  

Also, it solders smt caps, resistors, other small descretes really 
slick (with solder paste).  I still prefer to do the high density 
smts with the soldering iron though.  The hot air doesn't seem to 
damage the ceramic caps like I was doing with the solder iron.  
Still, I need to get my toaster oven going.  I've done a few boards 
with it, but I don't have a tight temp controller on it yet so I'm 
sure I'm cooking them too long.

Anyway i got the "Atten 850" hot air station through ebay.  New 
direct from Hong Kong was $154 --much cheaper than the Hakko's I've 
seen listed...

---  "Ron Amundson" wrote:

> At one time I used a Metcal iron, its like another major step above 
the Wellers. Wow did it work well for both solder and desolder, but 
it was insanely expensive $1200US. As their were tips for each type 
of IC package for desoldering. One could remove a 68pin fine pitch 
device without damage in around a minute and that included the time 
to change tips and reheat.