You Suck!

[peAk]

New Hakko FR-301 Desolder Gun Day!

.....where have you been all my life?

[Leevibe]

Man, there are times I really wish I had one of those. Congrats!

[diablochris6]

Nice!

[alanp]

Just remember to do your maintenance on it, or it will suck... er, not suck... ah, heck, you know what I mean

[gtr2]

They work well but they quickly become really hard to clean if you don't stay on top of it.  Clean the "intake" barrel after every session while the gun is hot.  The issue is if you are using a smaller tip you really have to take the tip off to do it well.
Out of all my tools I've burnt myself on it more times than I care to admit.

I've used it less and less over the years and find good desoldering braid quicker than waiting for it to heat up and then having to clean it/maintain it.  I also just use hot air now for things like pots and 3pdts and use braid to wick the solder out of the holes.  I find it easier, ymmv, but I desolder a fair amount for fixes and pulling parts off old protos.

[peAk]

They work well but they quickly become really hard to clean if you don't stay on top of it.  Clean the "intake" barrel after every session while the gun is hot.  The issue is if you are using a smaller tip you really have to take the tip off to do it well.
Out of all my tools I've burnt myself on it more times than I care to admit.

I've used it less and less over the years and find good desoldering braid quicker than waiting for it to heat up and then having to clean it/maintain it.  I also just use hot air now for things like pots and 3pdts and use braid to wick the solder out of the holes.  I find it easier, ymmv, but I desolder a fair amount for fixes and pulling parts off old protos.

I just had to replace 3 (10 pins each) encoders on my Moog and it took minutes and did a clean as hell job. That would have taken forever with a sucker or wick and possibly wouldnt have been able to do it at all.

While there is upkeep and it is spendy, .....suckers or wick cant compare IMO.

[gtr2]

Yep that is a perfect use case.

I can desolder a 3pdt faster with hot air though haha.