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Update: I gave up on using a heat gun for every single board reflow job
For years I'd blast every old console or TV board with my trusty 500W heat gun, but after a PS4 Slim repair in Tacoma last month where I lifted three pads, I switched to a cheap $25 hot air station for anything with small parts. The control is just better and I'm not fighting to keep components from blowing away. Anyone else make a switch like this after a specific job went wrong?
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miles9926mo ago
Oh man, I feel this! I melted a perfectly good Xbox 360 HDMI port right off the board with my old heat gun. The air flow was just way too wild. Grabbed a cheap station too and it's a total game changer for those tiny capacitors.
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alicec866mo ago
Honestly a good heat gun with a small nozzle still works fine for me, just gotta be more careful.
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coran635mo ago
The real difference nobody talks about is how a hot air station heats the board more evenly so you don't end up with thermal shock cracks on older joints. A heat gun blasts one spot way too fast while the rest of the board stays cold, which is why those PS4 ICs sometimes just pop off clean. That even preheat from a station saved me more trouble than just better airflow control ever could.
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