Fixing a HP34C

[BobVA]

(07-13-2023 02:24 PM)agarza Wrote:  Thanks for the tip.

What are the traces made up, so that they melt so easily?

It's not the traces, it's the board. If you put too much heat into the trace it melts its way down into the board, leaving a hole.

I definitely agree with the "take your time" advice above, but don't do that while you've got the iron on the board :-)

If I recall correctly, my procedure was: heat up the component lead, flow a little solder on that and get off as soon as that flowed smoothly on the pad. Normally I'd touch the iron to both but that risked melting the board. I was using my usual iron temperature of about 375C - a different temperature might have worked better, but I was hesitant to experiment.