Electronic Parts Cannibalizing

Hi everybody!!

Nowadays everything is done to use and dispose. It's a pity to waste all the wonders enclosed into most of our broken / obsolete gadgets.
Some pieces are mechanical parts, easy to dismantle, but electronics chips are difficult and tedious to desolder.

This is a cheap little trick to desolder electronic components, very useful for our instructables.

We need a stripper (Hot Air Gun) and a piece of cardboard to cover the floor.

First of all, we have to choose what to desolder. In this case, we will desolder a bipolar stepper motor controller, in order to make a motor controller for a robotic related project.

This PCB was part of an old inkjet printer, and of course, it's full of dust so we have to clean it.

Also, put the cardboard on the floor, to avoid damages.

Once cleaned, we'll heat the zone gently. The stripper I use has two different intensities. For this step I only use the first one (about 250ºC). Remember to heat both sides, even for SMD chips.
This step will take about 20 seconds per side.

Once heated for 40 seconds, heat it for 20 seconds more per side, but at a higher energy (in my case 500ºC). After this, shake the PCB against the cardboard to detach the chip. Probably, you will need to heat the PCB again, before the chip detaches, but don't heat it too much.

To melt tin correctly, it's necessary to heat it several times, so be patient or you could break the chip.

Here we can see our capture, ready to use.

Have a nice "cannibalizing"!