I have used a heat gun before. Something you can pick up at the local home center. I have changed power connectors on laptop boards using one of these before. Some care has to be taken to not apply too much heat to the area. You may need a second set of hands to do this.
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Joshua MacCraw Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2012 10:03 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [H] Hot air solder I have an alfa networks USB wifi that the surface mount USB port has pulled free of the board which for various reasons they will not fix under warranty. I find myself in need of a hot air solder rework station but no real budget nor understanding of just what I need to reflow the solder for this part without damaging or dislodging nearby components. Any chance that someone on our list owns or works somewhere that maybe getting rid of a used hot air station cheap? Cheapest reputable solution I've found is over $100, which is way too much for my budget. Damn port just poped off the board in storage, haven't even really used since picking it up on a whim to learn backtrack last year. Alfa fine corporate drones standing firm on it being 13mo and pissed I opened clam shell to send pics of the damage per what I thought support was asking for despite it being clear exceptional fine Chinese workmanship was at fault.
