Hi,
Thanks! I’ll give that a try.
Hi,
FYI, it turns out that this is another “RTFM” moment.
I was reading through the heat gun manual again, and it turns out that there are two different temperature scales/ranges for “high” vs. “low” speed. So, the feeling that I had earlier that the gun just wasn’t getting as hot when I had it in low speed as it was when I had it in high speed turns out to be correct :(… And, that was probably the main reason why the solder was melting sooner when I had the gun in high speed vs. in low speed.
Mine works the same way, but indicates both ranges on the gun. It so happens that I tried low a few hours ago (before this thread started) and turned the temp up higher than I normally do for high… I still ended up switching back to high and the normal temp. YMMV 
LOL yeah we used to call them nvidiots… Remember the first time saw that on the 8800gtx. Think the guy had it in his oven with some chicken. There was some kid too he posted how to fix the xbox rrod without taking it apart. He sticks a hair dryer into the vent for like a hour. You can mock this stuff but they had people all over doing it
You don’t want to block the air intake on a heat gun or hair dryer. They depend upon the air flow to keep the thing from overheating… their design is a balance between heater power and air flow. Hair dryers are required to have a “thermal fuse” in them to kill the heater if it gets too hot. And those are one-shot deals. It blows and you junk the unit. The thermal fuse is usually spot welded in and can’t be replaced. A lot of heat guns also have them.
texaspyro! Excellent point, my ACE $15 gun did not come with tips but I did check coils after 5 minutes max on low setting. The guns with variable nozzles are designed for this use.
Blocking air from the motor intake side would be really bad idea as pointed out.
I will second wight's approach. I use a cheapo Harbor Freight heat gun. Has 2 settings. I use the slower speed setting and just hold the heat gun far enough away to not away blow around components.
Some flux can provide some surface tension to help hold components in place until the solder grabs them.
EDIT: Angle is a factor too. Straight above works best for me. But I watch the components and adjust if I see them trying to move.
Good call on the importance of the angle ImA4Wheelr. I normally use mine straight down as well. I generally hold it by the plastic portion of the barrel rather than the handle. I often shift the gun around slightly in all lateral directions, about 0.5x or 1.0x the width of the driver.
and if nozzle tip is in use, my gun is as comfy described, very hot air.
If I break either hot air or Ungar then I’m going to look hard at the $50 work station combos unless you guys say it’s not worth it. I like the ones with air hose but the blower in handle types look fine but heavier.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C05118I/
$55, much more adjustable, comes with an extra heating element. Lots of different style tips available if you want to do fancy stuff, but not really necessary.
one of these: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Wagner-HT3500-1500-Watt-Digital-Heat-Gun-0503040/203474822
Definitely will have to make a much smaller tip for use on drivers.
I can start by practicing on the dead stuff I have around, before venturing into actually building something.
I use the full sized tip and heat the entire driver, or at least most of it. Then I use tweezers to remove whatever needs to be pulled off. My advice is to be careful with reducers, IMO you may end up with too much velocity (blow parts away).
good advice, appreciated