this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2025
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Mechanical Keyboards

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I accidentally soldered a switch on crooked. I got the switch off the board but i'm having trouble cleaning out the holes so i can put a new switch in.

Can this switch footprint be saved after being clogged with solder and melted a little, or should i try to get the other switches off and start over on a new board?

And what's the best way to desolder these switches if i have to remove the rest?

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[–] zqwzzle@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 months ago

If you don’t have a solder sucker or wick like the others have mentioned you might be able to knock it out. Just use a soldering iron and heat up one at a time and when it’s melted knock the board on a surface so that the surface tension on the solder pulls it out of the through hole.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Certainly. This is a very common need with working on PCBs. You have two choices:

Solder wick
Manual vacuum desoldering tool

If you end up doing this a lot there are also very nice (and expensive) powered vacuum desoldering stations.

Regardless of which you choose, make sure to practice on a board you don't care about. It takes some time to learn how much heat to apply, angles, etc. You don't want to destroy your good board learning.

[–] infinitevalence@discuss.online 2 points 2 months ago

Some solder wick and flux will pull that right off.