has anyone tried this? I made one but I can't get the air hot enough to melt the solder at 5mm away. I have to be like 1mm from the piece and it still takes forever. I have stuffed a lot of copper debraiding wires in there to slow down the air flow and still no like. I do turn on the pump the moment I plug in the iron tho. anyone have any inputs? I am using this setup
http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/07/h...oldering-iron/

 

IMO, i rather just use a soldering iron. i think its just a waste of time and money to make that.

 

Just buy a good soldering iron with the proper tip for what you are soldering. For anything led swap related, you will never need this. For removing flat pack processors like shown in that writeup, I have a hard time believing that will work very well. With a little skill, the right solder tip, some solder braid and maybe a small pick you can do the same job. I once worked in a lab with a ton of solder re-work equipment. The air powered reflow tool was the least used, since it rarely did the job effectively, and it was a high end system.