How to safely decrease volume of solder joints?

AndrejaKo

I hope I'm posting in a right forum!

Anyway, I just received my Propeller demo board and I've noticed that most of the larger solder joints had their volume decreased by some tool (sorry, I don't know of a better way to express myself), but they missed one and that is causing me some problems since the joint is taller than the feet of the board.

Here we can see that they got the left joint correctly and the far right joint correctly, but the middle-right joint was not processed.

Now I know that I can just unsolder the joint, bend the offending pins, solder it again and solve the issue in this one particular case, but what I'd like to know is what kind of tools could a hobbyist use to achieve the same effect as seen on the left and far right joint and avoid cracking the joints? I tired using diagonal cutters in the past, but I'd always end up cracking the joint.

Leon

Remove the solder with solder braid, crop the sticking out bits, and resolder.

W9GFO

I think this is the type of tool you are looking for;



Flush cutter

Rich H

AndrejaKo

@W9GFO

Thanks a lot. I'll try to find a tool like that.

@Leon
A very obvious and effective answer, but not the one I was looking for.

Dave Hein

File?
Dremmel tool?
Replace feet with taller ones?

AndrejaKo

I'm just using this one particular problem to illustrate what I'm hoping to learn how to do, so yes the feet would solve the issue here, but not my long-term goal.

File could be a good idea, but it's relatively slow, creates derbies and it could be difficult to get a small enough file for electronics work. Compressed air could take care of the derbies problem, but size would limit files to the edge of the board. A rotary tool with small enough tip looks like a good idea.

Dave Hein

Grinder?
High power CO2 laser?
Precisely aimed rifle?
Very sharp Ginzu knife that can cut through anything for the low price of $19.95 if ;you act now within the next 15 minutes?

Just kidding! I would just melt the solder and use a solder sucker or solder wick, or just flick away the excess solder with the tip of the soldering iron. Then, use a pair of diagonal cutters to trim away the extra metal. Pretty much what Leon said.

Oh, I have used fingernail clippers in the past, but they don't work very well for clipping nails after that.

kwinn

I have used a solder sucker (spring actuated piston) to remove the excess solder, cut the pins with a tool like the flush cutter shown, and re-soldered joint if required.

RDL2004

With plated through holes, try trimming the leads almost flush before soldering.