Tried using a heat gun on a stubborn solder joint and melted a connector housing instead

I was working on a old receiver from the 80s last weekend and had this one solder joint that just would not budge. Got impatient and grabbed my heat gun set to 750 degrees instead of my soldering iron. Melted the whole plastic connector housing in about 4 seconds flat. Learned the hard way that heat guns are way too much for delicate PCB work and you gotta match the tool to the job. Now I keep a note taped to my bench that says '750 melts everything, not just solder.' Has anyone else trashed a part by grabbing the wrong heat source?

2 comments

2 Comments

andrew_nguyen641mo ago

Hot air stations still melt plastic at 400 if you hold it too long.

drew_thomas91mo ago

Grabbed a battery powered heat gun I got on sale last year for a similar job, overheated a wire harness connector on a old car stereo. I read somewhere that even those lower temp heat guns can hit 400 degrees which is still way too hot for most plastics (like, they start melting around 250). Now I use a hot air rework station with adjustable temp, keeps me from wrecking stuff.