PC/Electronics IC Chips how to remove?

There's three ways to remove the soldered on chips. Desolder, heat gun, or grind them off. The beat-it-to death-with-a-hammer routine won't do you much good in this case. I don't know how to desolder, and my attempt to use a heat gun only blew up a neighboring capacitor. So I use a Dremel tool with a cut-off wheel. Wear safety glasses and a dust mask if you go that route. And don't purchase a cheap Harbor Freight Chicago brand knock-off rotary tool. They don't last. I found that out the hard way.

The ones that are soldered on the same side where the chip is can be removed with a wood chisel. Make sure you know where both hands are or you can wind up with stitches or scraped knuckles.

I only do this on low grade boards. Removing them from higher grade boards will devalue the boards

What ever you do to get the pins off once you have removed the chip, don't do this...

It may look easy to just hold the chip vertical on its edge, then use a boxcutter knife to cut the pins off one edge, then turn it around 90deg& do the next edge.

Whats going to happen, after a few edges the knife will get blunter, it'll take a bit more energy to cut the pins, then you have to wiggle the knife a little so it cuts thru the first few pins & then it cuts down thru the rest of the pins.

After a few more, it'll grab one of the pins instead of cutting thru it, because you use more force, it'll rotate the chip 90deg.
That'll pull your fingers around the chip (to your right hand side) a bit.
Then with that amount of force, it'll slide down & slice the end off your finger & thumb.


I use a box cutter to remove the chips, I put the board down flat & for every chip I slice one side of pins off the shortest edges (both sides)
Then I turn the board 90deg & scrape a slice down one edge, I don't cut right thru it, just enough that I might cut thru a few pins but scrape all of that edge. ( I do it that way so theres something still attaching the chip to the board when I do the next cut, and it weakens that edge of the chip)

I then turn the board 180deg & then slice thru the pins on their right edge. Sometimes the chip comes off. Most of the time they stay there sqewed around a bit.
Then I go thru & lift the chips 90deg to the board with a screwdriver, still stuck on by the weakened pins.
Then I go thru with pliers or by hand & rip the chips off.

Who said anything about cutting the legs off? Never heard of it.

Bear, that's why I said I only take them off low grade boards. My yard only pays 8 cents a pound for them. So anything worth more than that comes off the boards.

If I can pry them off low grade boards easily with a screwdriver then they come off. If the first one is difficult then I stop trying with the rest. You'll notice that is the case. Some ics are easy and others are not.

Originally Posted by Bear

frankly i don't feel smashing a hundred chips for 4 or 5 bux are worth the time or trouble

Heck, I'd rather smash for 4-5 bucks than wrestle with those PITA aluminum heatsinks for 40-45 cents.