Guy at the scrapyard told me to boil circuit boards... actually worked?

So there's this old timer named Marty who hangs around the scrapyard near my shop in Akron. He saw me digging through a pile of dead power supplies and goes "you gotta boil 'em for 20 minutes to loosen the solder joints." I laughed it off but last week I tried it on a trash UPS board just for kicks. Popped it in a pot of water on my propane burner, boiled it, and sure enough the through-hole components practically fell out after I tapped the board. Weird thing is it didn't even damage the board... has anyone else heard of this hack or am I just lucky it didn't explode?

3 comments

3 Comments

val_taylor5d ago

Old Marty knows what he's talking about. I did the same thing with a microwave power board that was completely dead. Dropped it in a pot of water with a splash of vinegar, boiled it for maybe 15 minutes, and the old solder just melted right off the pads. Components slid out like they were greased. I was sure I'd warp the board or cause some corrosion, but it dried out fine and I actually reused the board for a different project. Have you tried it with any multilayer boards yet, or just the cheap single layer ones?

schmidt.blake5d ago

That first board I tried was a single layer radio board from an old stereo, and I swear I spent more time picking corrosion off the pins than I did actually desoldering anything. Took me three tries with the boiling water trick before I realized the vinegar splash is key, otherwise you just get a wet board with stuck components. I haven't been brave enough to try it on a multilayer board yet, mostly because I'm afraid I'll fry something important or warp the middle layers where I can't see the damage. Knowing my luck, I'd boil a perfectly good computer motherboard and turn it into a soggy paperweight. But yeah, for cheap junk boards that are already dead, it's a game changer compared to fighting with a solder sucker for an hour.

grant.kevin5d ago

Boiling it with vinegar is exactly what I was wondering about, because without that acid bath I feel like you'd just end up with a sticky mess. @val_taylor I'm curious though, how long did you let the board dry out before you tried using it again? I tried something similar on a multilayer board from an old DVD player and it totally warped on me, like the fiberglass just gave up and bent in the middle. Did you notice any weird smells or bubbling when you dried it in the oven or whatever you used?