OEM Connector Salvaging: Lead Bath

[AdvancedEnergySys]

I do have a confession of having more redneck hobbies in the Pew Pew realm. In the past I was heavily into casting my own projectiles and thus have significant quantities of pure-ish lead in storage. This is the setup I use to process scrap lead so it was just a matter of dropping in a few ingots and floating the pcb on the molten lead for about 30 seconds and picking off the desired components!

[johu]

Very cool, now you can forego ordering the connectors. Why are they filled with toothpaste or something?

[MattsAwesomeStuff]

Very cool, now you can forego ordering the connectors. Why are they filled with toothpaste or something?

So lead doesn't pour into them and freeze?

Blowtorch directly to the board is normally my approach. Skip the middleman.

[jon volk]

Im more a cast iron skillet on the stovetop guy. Same method Im using for smt assembly

[AdvancedEnergySys]

Very cool, now you can forego ordering the connectors. Why are they filled with toothpaste or something?

Attempt number 2 started with connectors filled with an oil based clay which ended up melting a bit and being completely unnecessary!

Im more a cast iron skillet on the stovetop guy. Same method Im using for smt assembly

Just make sure you aren't doing this inside, Lead oxide is hard to avoid when in a pan on the stove and once you start breathing it in blood toxicity isn't far behind. That being said, having a molten bath of lead surrounded by snow in a place that snows often isn't much less hazardous.

I only lost a few connectors on my first board with all of the 50 pin connectors coming out perfect!