RE: [N8VEM-S100:381] What DIP sockets to use in building boards

["Jack Rubin" <jack....@ameritech.net>]

> Unless you have a completely reliable burned in working board and
> transfer all the chips across to socket-less board I honestly would not
> recommend this approach to most people.  If you do it with untested
> chips and the board does not work it is far more difficult to debug.
> Worse still, for many getting out the IC chip without raising the
> solder pads from the board is a serious hazard.  If you do find
> yourself in this situation and you don�t have a multi-pin desoldering
> tool or vacuum desoldering gun its simply best to cut all the IC pins
> on the (suspected) faulty IC and remove them one at a time. Then use a
> needle/pointer to enlarge the hole after melting the residual solder.
> 

I'm in love with my Hakko 808 desoldering gun. Everything in a single hand-held unit, including vacuum pump. It's a solder "eraser", allowing you to salvage and redo almost any soldered joint. Another favorite is the Chip-Quik solder removal kit, with a special flux and low melting temp alloy that has saved valuable components for me on several occasions. 

Jack