Soldering station with hot air
Based on features and cost, I selected the X-TRONIC 4000 rework station for my use. I ordered one and received it three days. If you've never used one of these stations before, may I suggest that you practice on a scrap PCB that has both large and small SMDs on it? I used an a old, discarded printer PCB. The soldering iron works very well and it's temperature controlled and is also ESD safe. As for the hot air nozzle, I removed small SMD devices with ease. I applied some rosin flux to the leads of a 100-pin IC and then I slowly moved the hot air nozzle (temp set to 300 degrees C.) around the it to preheat the IC's soldered leads. After about 30 seconds, I increased the hot air temperature to about 400 degrees C and continued moving around the IC, melting the solder. Using the "IC popper" gadget, I gently lifted the IC away from the pcb. The magnifying lens/lamp helped my old eyes to see the more clearly. "X-TRONIC" MODEL #4040 - 4000 SE...