All you hardcore hackers probly already know all 'bout this, but I just discovered a fun thing to do with my hotair gun. I stripped an old PCB of all its components like freakin' magic. Damn chips were flying everywhere. It kept me giggling for quite some time . . .
Hee hee, boy am I easily entertained or what? 
Dan K
pictures? movie?
Cautionary note to first timers: Have an exhaust fan set up when doing this, wear eye protection, keep a fire extinguisher handy . . . yadda . . . yadda . . .
Me too!
jt
I made a keychain with a couple of Intel bridge chips I scavenged that way. A long handle screwdriver helps pushing parts off the solder pads.
I've got a plan for the bare boards as well once I finish getting the slots off. Another note of caution, be careful about heating up capacitors. First one I blew up my heart skipped a beat (then I realized it was fun and pointed it at a bank of them :D).
When I was considering upgrading the memory in the iPaq I had at the time, I read up on heat-gun and toaster oven SMT removal.
I practiced with several 8 and some tall Apple 16MB simms (the 16MB simms because they were closer in density to the SD-RAM I'd have to work with on the ipaq).
I heated them up with the heat gun, then, holding the simm with pliers, gave it a tap on the workbench, and one by one I'd knock the chips and resistors off.
Next step was to make sure I could put them back on and have them still work, otherwise there was no way I'd do the operation on the PDA.
I could only get one simm - an 8MB - to work again. Between the harsh heating I gave the boards, and the lack of a temperature control on my iron, I cooked the chips a bit more than they could take. I decided it would be a mistake to pursue the iPaq upgrade further, unless I wanted to spend a heap of money on better equipment.
Been there, done that.
Brilliant if you have a dead x100 PowerMac... PPC 601s are beautiful!
Dan,
Gee, you're taking to this stuff like gangbusters!!
Now I'm gunna have to go out and buy me a hot air gun, too. Gotta keep up with the Joneses and all that...
Peace,
Drew
I was in the process of doing this when I killed my old iPaq. I was soldering the memory back on when my wife walked in and tapped me on the sholder. I didn't know she was there and jumped a little. Needless to say I ripped quite a few traces off the board. Killed it dead.... I have a 5555 now, 128mb or ram! No need to upgrade!
Yikes!
I bet you were pretty pissed!
Peace,
Drew